Cytological Study on the Effect of Industrial Hygiene affecting Urothelial Cells

Lee, Jin Moo; Yang, Seung Chul

Abstract

It has been recognized for many years that a proportion of patients with bladder cancer have their tumors caused by past exposure at work to carcinogenic aromatic amines. All patients attending the Department of Urology Yonsei University Hospital with bladder cancer during the period from August, 1981 to July, 1983 are routinely interviewed and full occupational histories are taken. One use of the histories collected has been to identify patients with occupational tumors. This study has designed to provide information regarding the value of cytologic examination of urinary tract specimen in the early detection and mass screening in cases of bladder cancer. Two hundred fifty two patients were subjected to this study. These patients have taken cytologic examinations at the Department of Urology, Yonsei University Hospital during the same period. The series compromised 156 consecutive cases without clinically or histologically verified bladder cancer and 96 consecutive cases of histologically verified transitional cell neoplasms of the bladder. Following results were obtained according to the various analyses. 1) There were 75 positive tests from patients with proved cancer(78.1%). 13 false positive cytological diagnoses malignancy were made in the 156 patients without bladder cancer(8.3%). It showed that cytological study is useful in the early detection and mass screening of bladder cancer. 2) The diagnostic accuracy of urinary cytology appears to be related to the quality of cytological preparations and the histological grade of bladder cancer. The frequency of positive findings in cases of grade II(79.6%) was much higher than that of grade I (42.9%). 3) 10.4% of patients gave their histories which suggested relevant occupations with possible exposure to carcinogen.