Analysis of the survival trends of UTUC patients

The National Cancer Institute’s SEER*Stat software version 8.3.6 (https://seer.cancer.gov/seerstat/) (SEER 18 Regs Custom Data (with additional treatment fields), Nov 2018 Sub (1975-2016 varying) database) was used to analyze the survival trends of UTUC patients. The exclusion criteria were as follows: (a) unknown marital status or domestic partner (n=990); (b) age < 18 years (n=7); (c) unknown survival time (n=72); (d) two or more primary tumors (n=12,710); and (e) unknown surgery (n=32). Finally, we were left with 10,852 eligible patients diagnosed with UTUC.

Variable definitions of information about age at diagnosis, sex, marital status, race, origin, primary site, histological type, grade, SEER stage, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, cause of death and survival time can be found in the SEER database. The starting point of the follow-up was the date of diagnosis of UTUC, and the end point was cancer-specific death or the last follow-up as of December 2016. The overall survival (OS) time corresponded to the length of time from the date of diagnosis to death from any cause or the date on which data were censored. When analyzing cancer-specific survival (CSS), mortality cases associated with other causes were excluded.