Adenocarcinoma of the Bladder: Study of 14 Cases and Review of the Literature

Summary Fourteen patients with adenocarcinoma of the bladder have been seen over a 14-year period; 6 tumours were of urachal origin and the remaining 8 were primary. All tumours were muscle-infiltrating. The 6 patients with urachal tumours were subjected to surgery; 3 underwent partial cystectomy and 3 radical total cystectomy. All patients who underwent partial cystectomy are alive and free of disease at 60 months, 12 months and 12 months respectively. The other 3 patients who underwent radical cystectomy suffered recurrence and 2 succumbed to their disease within 1 year. All patients with primary adenocarcinoma of the bladder underwent radical cystectomy, 5 of them after planned pre-operative radiotherapy. There were 3 post-operative deaths. One patient died of an unrelated cause 30 months after surgery and 2 died of disseminated disease 8 and 16 months after surgery. One patient developed inguinal lymph node metastases 4 months after surgery and is controlled at 12 months with radiotherapy. Only 1 of the 8 patients with primary adenocarcinoma of the bladder is alive and free of disease at 6 months.