Survival of patients with urinary bladder cancer in Jordan, 2005-2014

Background: Urinary bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer in Jordan. No research on survival from bladder cancer at the national level has been conducted before. Aims: This study aimed to estimate the probability of survival in patients with bladder cancer in Jordan and identify factors associated with survival. Methods: Data were obtained from the database of the Jordan cancer registry. All cases of urinary bladder cancer in Jordanians registered during 2005-2014 were included in the study (n = 2139). Data collected for each case included: age, sex, date of diagnosis, and stage and grade at diagnosis. Actuarial life table survival analysis was used to determine the overall survival probabilities. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to identify independent factors associated with survival. Results: The overall 1-, 3-, 5-and 10-year survival probabilities for urinary bladder cancer were 85%, 73%, 69% and 59%, respectively (standard error = 0.01 for each). No significant difference in survival probabilities was found between males and females (P = 0.642). The overall survival probabilities decreased significantly as age at diagnosis increased (P < 0.005). Better survival was observed in patients with early stage and well differentiated tumours at diagnosis. Conclusions: The survival of patients with bladder cancer in Jordan is comparable to that reported from developed countries. A high percentage of data was missing and the reporting of some variables was inconsistent. To improve the quality of cancer data, regular training is needed for hospital focal points on recording complete data.