Micropapillary carcinoma of the bladder: case report and review of the literature

Micropapillary carcinoma is an uncommon pathologic variant of bladder carcinoma with aggressive behavior. Its usual presentation is like a high grade and high stage carcinoma and associated with other histologic types in different proportion. It doesn't differ clinically from normal transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder. Studies of molecular markers are still contradictories. Treatment should be early and aggresive, based on surgical therapy as radiotherapy and chemotherapy have shown limited results. We report a 72 year old man suffering from low urinary tract symptoms for years and recently presented gross hematuria. He was diagnosed as high stage micropapillary carcinoma. One year after radical cystectomy and subsequent chemotherapy based on carboplatin and gemcitabine, progression of the disease was shown on CT and the patient died 14 months after the diagnosis.