| Abstract: | To determine what percentage of renal transplant candidates have atypical urinary cytology, what proportion have urothelial carcinoma and whether cystoscopy is necessary with atypical cytology. All end‐stage renal disease (ESRD) patients (703) presenting for renal transplantation at our institution were retrospectively reviewed. Individuals producing sufficient urine were screened with urine cytology and those with atypical cytology or risk factors for bladder cancer underwent cystoscopy. Four hundred and thirty patients had available urinary cytology and, of these, 151 (35%) had atypical cytology. Of patients with atypical cytology, three were identified to have urothelial carcinoma. However, three additional patients with urothelial carcinoma did not present with atypical cytology. In total, 6 of 703 (0.85%) patients had bladder cancer. All were treated with transurethral resection and eventually underwent renal transplant. One patient has had disease progression post‐transplant to distant metastases. This is the largest study to date evaluating the incidence of urothelial carcinoma in ESRD patients presenting for transplant workup. We found the incidence of bladder cancer to be higher than in the general Canadian population, however, most lesions were low grade. We found atypical cytology in transplant candidates to be a poor predictor for these low‐grade lesions and do not recommend routine cystoscopy for atypical cytology. |
