Table 3. Summary of follow-up regimes, outcomes and results.

Study ID	Authors	Follow-up regimes investigated	Outcome(s) of interest	Summary of results
1	Yucetas et al. (11)	3-month post-TURBT cystoscopy, then every 3 months for 2 years, then annually until the 5th year	Frequency of recurrences and pT stage progression	Most recurrences in the low-risk NMIBC patients occurred within the first 2 years. If the follow-up strategies described in the guidelines had been utilised, patients with relapses would have a delay of at least 6 months of diagnosis. The authors therefore recommend that cystoscopy should be performed every 3 months within the first two years
2	Schroeck et al. (12)	Risk aligned cancer surveillance	Frequency of surveillance cystoscopy and length of follow-up for low-risk and high-risk NMIBC patients	The frequency of cystoscopic surveillance for patients with early-stage bladder cancer was comparable across both low and high risk groups Therefore, the risk-aligned strategies were not widely used
3	Hurle et al. (13)	Cystoscopy every 3 months for the first year, and then every 6 months thereafter	Active surveillance failure	Active surveillance is a reasonable strategy in patients presenting with LG pTa/pT1a bladder tumours. The authors state the results from the study strengthen the role of active surveillance within this selected population with minimal risk of progression
4	Hendricksen et al. (14)	Urologists were given 10 options of follow-up schedules with varying frequencies and duration to choose from	Frequency and duration of follow-up	Patients with low-risk NMIBC are likely to be over-monitored and those with high-risk NMIBC under-monitored
5	Schroeck et al. (15)	Recommended vs. frequent surveillance	Progression to muscle-invasive disease and bladder cancer death	Patients with low-risk NMIBC underwent too many cystoscopies. Subsequently, frequent cystoscopy was associated with twice as many transurethral resections and did not decrease the risk for bladder cancer progression or death, supporting current guidelines
6	Han et al. (16)	Recommended cystoscopy regime (at 3, 12 and 24 months post-diagnosis) and overuse of surveillance (defined as undergoing 2 or more cystoscopies if followed for less than 1 year, 3 or more procedures if followed between 1 to less than 2 years, and 4 or more procedures if followed for 2 years after diagnosis)	Overuse of surveillance	The authors observed the overuse of cystoscopy surveillance in 75% of patients with low-risk NMIBC
7	Simon et al. (17)	(French Association of Urology guidelines) Cystoscopy at 3 months post-TURBT, then every 3 months for two years, every 6 months thereafter until five years, and then annually	Time to recurrence and/or progression (up to 10 years)	17 of the 47 progression which occurred, did so after 5-year of follow-up. Therefore, the authors recommend that the endoscopic surveillance of patients with TaG1 should be continued beyond 5 years of follow-up but annually rather than 6 months
8	Golabesk et al. (9)	Cystoscopy performed at 3 months after the therapy and, if no recurrence was found, alternate follow-up with cystoscopy or ultrasound and cytology was organized every 4 months for 2 years, and every 6 months thereafter	Frequency of recurrence and progression free survival	G1-2 urothelial bladder cancers recur and progress uncommonly in the long-term period. 37% of recurrences occurred within the first 5 years, whilst 4% occurred after 5 years. The authors suggest a re-examination of the follow-up schedule for patients G1-2 tumours who remain asymptomatic and disease-free for at least 5 years
9	Hernandez et al. (18)	Cystoscopy every 3 to 4 months for the first 2 years then every 6 months alternating between cystoscopy and ultrasound	End points were grade and pathological stage progression	The authors conclude that active surveillance in a high-selectivity group of patients (i.e., patients with Ta not T1 tumours) is feasible and oncologically safe in the long term
10	Mariappan and Smith (10)	Initial cystoscopy 3 months after TURBT then again at 6–9 months and, if clear, annually thereafter	Frequency of recurrences	The authors state that patients with G1Ta disease who are free of recurrence for 5 years after presentation can be safely discharged
11	Wright and Jones (19)	N/A	Study aimed to get a consensus on what regime was used by consultant urologists	There were considerable variations among individuals in the type and timing of check cystoscopy
12	Zhang, Denton and Nielsen (20)	EAU and AUA guidelines plus 12 other strategies. All strategies begin surveillance 3 months post-TURBT and end after 5 years. They each differed in intervals between cystoscopies	Lifelong progression rate, total number of cystoscopies and QALYS associated with each surveillance strategy	The results suggest that both age and comorbidity significantly affected the optimal surveillance strategy. For example, younger patients should be screened more intensively than older patients, and patients with comorbidities should be screened less intensively
13	Herr and Donat (21)	Both white light and narrow-band imaging cystoscopy at 6-month intervals following prior recurrence	Frequency of recurrences and the recurrence-free survival	Narrow band imaging cystoscopy was associated with fewer patients having tumour recurrences, fewer numbers of recurrent tumours, and a longer recurrence-free survival time
14	Wazait et al. (22)	N/A	Study aimed to identify a consensus on the follow-up guidelines for NMIBC patients	The authors concluded that there was a lack of consensus regarding the long-term surveillance of bladder cancer in the UK and Ireland

AS, active surveillance; AUA, American Urological Association; EAU, European Association of Urology; NMIBC, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer; QALYS, quality adjusted life years; TURBT, transurethral resection of the bladder tumour.