En bloc resection for nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer: review of the recent literature

Purpose of review Conventional transurethral resection of bladder tumor (cTURBT) is the standard approach to the diagnosis and treatment of nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer. However, it suffers from inherent limitations such as insufficient assessment of resection depth and the need for intravesical tumor fragmentation that hampers histopathological evaluation. We summarize recent clinical data on en bloc resection of bladder tumor (ERBT), a method that promises to overcome these limitations. Recent findings The PubMed/Medline databases were searched for reports on ERBT focusing on trends in the last 2 years. ERBT provides greater resection quality, making up to 95% of detrusor muscle available for pathological evaluation. ERBT also allows detection of the muscularis mucosae thus facilitating T1 substaging. Available data demonstrate no significant difference in perioperative morbidity. No conclusions can be drawn on the impact of either modality on tumor recurrence and progression, as the available data is too underpowered. ERBT is gaining acceptances as there is increasing evidence that it improves the quality of resected specimens. There seems to be no difference in perioperative morbidity between ERBT and cTURBT. The impact of ERBT on important endpoints such as recurrence and progression remains to be fully elucidated in further studies.