Clinical evaluation on renal pelvic and ureteral tumors

: We report 82 patients with renal pelvic and ureteral tumors admitted to Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto Second Red Cross Hospital and Shakai-Hoken Kyoto Hospital between January, 1981 and December, 1991. Sixty two were males and 24 were females, and they were between 47 and 93 years old (average: 68.2 years). The tumor occurred on the right side in 34 patients, on the left side in 51 patients and on both sides in one patient. There were 43 renal pelvic tumors, 37 ureteral tumors and 6 renal pelvic with ureteral tumors. The most frequent symptom was macrohematuria, which was seen in 54 patients (62.8%). Urinary cytology was performed in 76 patients and a positive result was obtained in 44 patients (57.9%). We performed surgical treatment on 71 patients. The most frequently adopted method was total nephroureterectomy with partial cystectomy which was performed on 51 patients (71.8%). Of the 73 specimens diagnosed histopathologically, 71 specimens were transitional cell carcinoma (TCC), one was a squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and one was a mixed type of TCC and adenocarcinoma. As to grading, 6 specimens were G1, 28 G2, 38 G3 and one GX. As to staging, 8 specimens were pTa, 17 pT1, 21 pT2, 18 pT3, 8 pT4 and one pTX. The overall survival rate (by Kaplan-Meier's method) at 3 and 5 years was 47.0% and 39.5%, respectively. The patients with high grade tumors and those who had ureter preservation, the survival rate was lower than in the other patients.