Primary carcinoma in situ of the ureter and renal pelvis

Diagnosis and grading of bladder cancer and associated lesions

Standardized classification and grading of urothelial carcinoma has now been achieved internationally. Uniformity of pathologic reporting should improve the comparability of different studies and therapies and provide more accurate information to urologists in managing patients.

The value of retrograde pyelography for fractionally visualized upper tracts on excretory urography in the evaluation of hematuria

A 5-year retrospective study of 131 hematuria patients (23 with gross and 108 with microscopic hematuria) undergoing retrograde pyelography solely for fractional visualization of the upper tracts on excretory urography revealed no tumors or other significant pathological condition in the 187 renal units (56 bilateral cases) studied. A review of our cases of upper tract urothelial cancer since 1955 revealed 36 patients with complete records of the urological evaluations. None of the cases was diagnosed by retrograde pyelography for fractionally visualized excretory urography and 3 were within 9 months of a previously normal excretory urogram alone or with retrograde pyelography. We believe that retrograde pyelography done solely to evaluate a fractionally visualized upper tract may miss subtle lesions and it should not terminate the evaluation. We recommend that excretory urography, cystoscopy and voided urine cytology studies be performed initially and, if normal, they should be repeated in 6 and 12 months before upper tract urothelial tumors are ruled out.

Primary carcinoma in situ of the ureter: a case report

A case of primary carcinoma in situ of the right ureter without a history of bladder tumors is presented. Cytological investigation of the right ureteral urine specimens revealed malignant cells and computerized tomography showed focal thickening of the upper portion of the right ureter. The patient underwent right nephroureterectomy, including excision of a bladder cuff. The diagnostic role of exfoliative urinary cytology is emphasized.

Upper urinary tract transitional cell cancer after radical cystectomy for bladder cancer

We studied 425 patients who had undergone radical cystectomy for transitional cell cancer of the bladder and were followed for 5 years or more, or until death. Upper urinary tract urothelial cancer developed in 14 patients (3.3 per cent), 3 of whom had bilateral disease: 2 synchronous and 1 asynchronous. The interval between cystectomy and emergence of the upper tract tumor ranged from 8 to 100 months (mean 40 months). There was a declining incidence of upper tract cancer relative to cystectomy P stage for carcinoma in situ (9.1 per cent), papillary stages O and A (3.6 per cent), stages B1, C and D1 (2.6 per cent) and no residual cancer (0 per cent). Of the 14 patients 8 (57 per cent) had features of multifocal carcinoma in situ in the cystectomy specimens. In 4 of the 14 patients (29 per cent) ipsilateral disease developed when the distal ureteral margins were involved with cancer at cystectomy. Only 3 of the 14 patients (21.4 per cent), all with stage I disease, were alive at the time of this report.

Management of high grade transitional cell cancer of the upper urinary tract

A total of 175 patients was operated on for grade 2, 3 or 4 transitional cell epithelioma of the upper urinary tract. Followup was between 5 and 26 years. The operations involved total nephroureterectomy, simple nephrectomy and local resection. Patient survival correlated well with tumor stage and, particularly, with tumor grade, and, consistently, was inferior to that of an age and sex-matched control group. The correlation of survival and ipsilateral tumor recurrence with the type of operation suggests that patients with grade 2 tumors may benefit from total nephroureterectomy. The incidence of ipsilateral tumor recurrence (28 per cent) was high in this group. The radical procedure seems to be of no benefit to patients with grade 3 or 4 tumors. The incidence of subsequent bladder tumor was 30 per cent in patients with grades 2 and 3 tumors. The latent period ranged from 2 months to 10 years (average 23 months); 82 per cent of the tumors occurred within 3 years of treatment of the upper tract tumor.