Objective: To construct the newly valuable nomogram which can compare the predictive performance with American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system in bladder transitional cell carcinoma (BTCC).
Methods: BTCC patients were screened (2004-2015) from the SEER database. The nomogram incorporating lymph node ratio was constructed to evaluate individualized cancer-specific survival.
Results: The C-index of the nomogram for predicting cancer-specific survival was 0.743 (95% CI: 0.720-0.766), which was higher than C-index of the AJCC staging system.
Conclusion: Lymph node ratio can be a reliable prognostic indicator for BTCC. The proposed nomogram showed more satisfactory predictive accuracy and wider applicability than current AJCC staging system in individualized prediction of BTCC patients.
Keywords: BTCC; LNR; bladder transitional cell carcinoma; cancer-specific survival; lymph node ratio; nomogram.