Carcinoma in situ of upper urinary tract

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled “Radical nephroureterectomy as initial treatment for carcinoma in situ of upper urinary tract” (Urology. 2006 Nov 6). Authors are Tsuchiya N, Yuasa T, Narita S et al., from the Department of Urology, Akita University School of Medicine, Akita, Japan. Transitional cell carcinoma in situ (CIS) of the upper urinary tract is a relatively rare disease, and treatment guidelines remain to be defined. The authors evaluated the outcomes after radical nephroureterectomy as the initial therapy for upper urinary tract CIS. Eight patients treated with radical nephroureterectomy after the diagnosis of upper urinary tract CIS from December 1999 to May 2004 were entered in a study. The conclusions are that although radical nephroureterectomy may be overtreatment for some patients with upper urinary tract CIS, excellent survival outcomes can be accomplished. In addition, the presence of concomitant invasive lesions, which cannot be identified on pretreatment examination in a substantial subset of patients with CIS, should be taken into account. To access the full abstract of the article, click here.