title: Variant forms of bladder cancer: basic considerations on treatment approaches.
abstract: Variant forms of bladder cancer are non-urothelial neoplasms or urothelial carcinomas mixed with other histologies. Compared to pure urothelial carcinoma, they all present with a high stage and grade. Prognosis is variable and there is a lack of evidence regarding the ideal treatment approach, because of their relative infrequency and the noninclusion in bladder cancer randomized trials. Despite this, basic recommendations can be extracted from case series. In the present report, existent literature about variant forms of bladder cancer is reviewed with focus on the most frequent: squamous cell, adenocarcinoma, small cell, micropapillary, sarcomatoid, and lymphoepithelioma-like.
authors.affiliation: Medical Oncology Service, University Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain. Fpons@parcdesalutmar.cat
authors.forename: Francesc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pons
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Orsola
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Morote
authors.forename: Joaquim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bellmunt
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D019459:Urothelium / Q000473:pathology*