A clinical study on renal pelvic and ureteral tumors

Thirty-seven cases of renal pelvic and ureteral tumors treated at our hospitals between January, 1975 and December, 1985 were reviewed. There were 15 renal pelvic tumors, 19 primary ureteral tumors and 3 ureteropelvic tumors. There were 26 males and 11 females and their average age was 62.5 years old ranging from 37 to 82. The most frequent chief complaint was macroscopic hematuria, which was seen in 89% of the patients (33/37). It was 35% of the patients (13/37) who visited our hospitals more than one month but less than three months after the appearance of symptoms. The positive rate of urine cytology was 69%. Total nephroureterectomy was performed on 22 patients and the other surgical treatments were done on 13 patients. Histological examination revealed transitional cell carcinoma in all cases. The overall actual postoperative survival rate at 1, 3 and 5 years was 83.9%, 68.0% and 68.0%, respectively, as measured by the Kaplan-Meier's method. None of the patients who survived more than 3 years after surgery died. The actual 3 and 5 year survival rates in cases of ureteropelvic tumors were slightly lower than those in the case of bladder tumors. There was no evidence in this series to show the usefulness of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy.