Urinary Cytologic Findings of Transitional Cell Carcinoma: Analysis of 83 Cases

Kim, Yeon Mee; Cho, Hye Je

Abstract

Urinary cytology has become an essential element in the diagnosis and management of transitional cell carcinoma(TCC) of the urinary tract. It has the advantage of being noninvasive, inexpensive, and easily accessible. Besides that it can even detect malignancy when unsuspected at cystoscopy. We report a retrospective review of urine cytology in the diagnosis of 83 TCC cases that underwent 295 cytologic evaluation. All patients had biopsy-proven TCC of the bladder, ureter and renal pelvis. The overall incidence of the positive cytology cases was 66.2%. To define the cytologic features of tumor cells, we tried to use three cytologic gradings such as "grade 1", "grade 2", and "grade 3" according to the cytologic degree of anaplastic neoplastic cells. These cytologic gades of TCC were relatively well correlated with the histologic grade and tumor invasiveness. This result suggests that the recognition of characteristic cellular features of TCC can suspect the histologic grade and tumor stage. The false negative TCC cases were 78.9%. They showed severe inflammatory or bloody background and a few neoplastic cells. Therefore, a cautious approach for accurate interpretation, personal experience, and proper fixation and processing could expand the role of urinary cytology.