Abstract
Background: Cytological examination of voided urine (VU) can reliably diagnose high-grade urothelial carcinoma (HGUC) of the lower urinary tract, but its value in the diagnosis of upper tract HGUC (UTHGUC) is less well-established. To clarify the utility of VU in the setting of UTHGUC, we examined urinary specimens from patients with UTHGUC on follow-up surgical pathology. Methods: 52 VU specimens (47 patients) with subsequent biopsy-proven UTHGUC were identified over a 12-year period; 32 had a corresponding upper tract urinary washing (UW) specimen. Patients with concurrent bladder HGUC were excluded. The diagnoses of VU specimens were tabulated and compared to those of UW specimens. Results: Three UW specimens had a less severe diagnosis, 8 had the same diagnosis, and 21 had a more severe diagnosis than the corresponding VU specimen from the same patient. Significantly more UW specimens demonstrated high-risk features as compared with VU specimens (P =.003). In specimens with atypia, a definitive diagnosis of HGUC was made significantly more often on UW vs. VU specimens (P =.003). Conclusions: Among patients with confirmed UTHGUC, 50% of preceding VU specimens demonstrated high-grade features compared to almost 90% of UW specimens. Though VU cytology shows atypia in the majority of cases, it performs inferiorly to UW for the detection of UTHGUC. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2017;45:700–704.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 700-704 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Diagnostic Cytopathology |
Volume | 45 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 1 2017 |
Keywords
- bladder cancer
- urine
- urothelial carcinoma
- urothelial neoplasia
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pathology and Forensic Medicine
- Histology