title: The predictive value of repeated urine cell culture in soft agar for recurrences of transitional cell carcinoma.
abstract: To evaluate the predictive value for recurrences of repeated urine cell culture in double layer soft-agar in patients with transitional cell carcinoma, 272 urine samples were collected from 75 patients. After a limited period of follow-up (mean 19.5 +/- 15.1 months) nine out of 46 patients with at least one evaluable culture and evaluable for clinical follow-up had a histologically proven recurrence preceded or accompanied by tumor colony growth in culture; one patient had tumor recurrence with growth negative urine cell culture; 15 patients had growth negative urine cell cultures and at first evaluation no recurrence of transitional cell carcinoma; 21 patients had growth positive urine cell cultures and no recurrence at first evaluation of follow-up. These two latter groups were evaluated again after an additional 30 months of follow-up. In the group with growth positive urine cell cultures (21 patients) nine patients (47.6%) developed a recurrence; 10 developed no recurrence. In the other group of patients with growth negative urine cell cultures (15 patients) six patients (40%) developed a recurrence, three following a growth positive urine cell culture. In the group of 46 evaluable patients in this study, 25 patients developed a recurrence, 21 had at least one growth positive culture. The sensitivity is 84% (21/25). Of 33 patients with positive cultures 21 have had a recurrence (64%) while 12/33 (36.7%) are "false positive." The false negative rate is 36.4% (four of 11 patients developed recurrences not preceded by growth positive urine cell cultures).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, University Hospital Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Kirkels
authors.forename: W F
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Feitz
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Verhagen-Derks
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Herman
authors.forename: F M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Debruyne
mesh_terms: D000362:Agar; D002295:Carcinoma, Transitional Cell / Q000652:urine*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000652:urine*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014410:Tumor Stem Cell Assay; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000652:urine*
chemical_list: D000362:Agar