Superficial and pedunculated signet ring cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder: a case report]

A case of primary signet ring cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder is described. A 63-year-old man presenting with difficulty of urination and miction pain had a pedunculated soybean-size tumor on the left lateral wall of the bladder. Specimens of the tumor were obtained by transurethral resection and the pathological diagnosis was signet ring cell carcinoma. There was no evidence of bladder metastasis from other organs. The patient then had intraoperative radiotherapy and he is alive without recurrence 20 months after the operation. We briefly discuss 73 cases of signet ring cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder collected from the English and Japanese literature. The tumor in this patient was the smallest of all cases reported previously.