Impact of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Imaging in Muscle-invasive Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder Staging

Bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer in Canada and there has been relatively little progress in altering its clinical course over the last three decades. One of the major problems identified in the management of this disease, is under staging of muscle invasive disease which can lead to suboptimal treatment and outcomes. PET-CT has the potential to more accurately stage MIBC than standard CT by detecting pelvic adenopathy and/or distant sites of disease that may not be found on standard imaging. In the former situation, more aggressive therapy with extended lymph node dissection and/or neoadjuvant chemotherapy prior to cystectomy can be offered. While in the latter situation patients can be spared the morbidity of a cystectomy performed in a setting of metastatic disease. This study will address whether PET-CT adds a clinically meaningful difference in care.

A multicenter randomized controlled trial will be performed. Patients usually present with symptoms (e.g., painless hematuria). The urologist will perform cystoscopy and if urothelial cancer of the bladder is suspected, the patient is taken to the operating room for an examination under anesthesia (EUA) and a TURBT. If this shows muscle invasion then conventional staging with CT chest, abdomen, and pelvis is performed. The patient who has TNM Stage T2a-T4a N0-3 M0 is eligible to be enrolled in the trial. Eligible consenting patients will be randomized 2:1 to PET-CT or none (Control). The actual treatment received by the patient will be documented. The primary outcome measure is treatment received.