Are referral centers for non-muscle-invasive XXXX compliant to EAU guidelines? A report from the vesical antiblastic therapy Italian study.

@entity1 @entity150
INTRODUCTION: Adherence to international guidelines is viewed as a prerequisite for optimal medical care delivery. Previously reported surveys for non-muscle-invasive @entity150 (NMIBC) employed mailed questionnaires to urologists or @entity1 resulting in conflicting degrees of agreement with existing guidelines. In the current study, contemporary information on the management of NMIBC was generated from a sample of italian centers. @entity1 AND METHODS: Eight Italian referral centers for the treatment of NMIBC were asked to collect information relative to all consecutive @entity1 with a histology-proven NMIBC undergoing a transurethral resection from January 1 to March 31, 2009. The primary study objective was to verify the level of adherence of disease management with European guidelines. RESULTS: 344 @entity1 resulted in being evaluable. 49.2% of high-risk @entity1 underwent a repeat transurethral resection. Bacillus Calmette-Gu  rin was employed in 35% of cases, while chemotherapy was in 22%. An early single regimen was adopted in 136 @entity1 and only in 1 out of 3 low-risk @entity1 . High-risk NMIBC received bacillus Calmette-Gu  rin and chemotherapy as first-line therapy in 66 and 12.5% respectively. After 3 months, cystoscopy had been reported for 82.5% of @entity1 with a recurrence rate of 13%. CONCLUSION: Adherence of Italian Institutions to EAU guidelines was optimal when reporting baseline variables. Significant degrees of discrepancy emerged in treatment choices.
