Percutaneous treatment of transitional cell carcinoma of the upper urinary tract.
BACKGROUND
We evaluated the long-term effect of percutaneous resection in 2 Japanese patients with transitional cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis, and reviewed the medical literature on similar patients, to determine the appropriate indications for percutaneous treatment of transitional cell carcinoma in the upper urinary tract.


RESULTS
Indications for endoscopic resection in the 2 patients were renal insufficiency and unsuitability for major open surgery. The patients had no recurrence during follow-up. Seven previous reports described percutaneous resection of upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma in 82 patients. Although 72.6% of the patients were successfully treated by percutaneous resection, half of the patients with grade 3 carcinoma developed recurrence.


CONCLUSIONS
These results, together with those of the 7 published reports, suggest that percutaneous resection should be limited to selected patients with low-grade transitional cell carcinoma.
Okada
H
H
Department of Urology, Kobe University School of Medicine, Japan.
Eto
H
H
Hara
I
I
Fujisawa
M
M
Kawabata
G
G
Yamanaka
N
N
Arakawa
S
S
Kamidono
S
S
D000368:Aged; D002295:Carcinoma, Transitional Cell / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D004724:Endoscopy; D006801:Humans; D007682:Kidney Pelvis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014567:Urography; D014571:Urologic Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*