Bladder Preservation Therapy for Muscle-Invading Bladder Cancers on Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Trials 8802, 8903, 9506, and 9706: Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor B Overexpression Predicts for Increased Distant Metastasis and Shorter Survival

Background. From 1988 to 1999, the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) conducted four prospective studies (8802, 8903, 9506, 9706) of patients with clinical stage T2–4a muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Treatment was selective bladder preservation using transurethral surgery (TURBT) plus cisplatin-based induction and consolidation chemoradiation regimens, reserving radical cystectomy for invasive tumor recurrence. We investigated vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway biomarkers in this unique clinical dataset (median follow-up of 3.1 years).