Transitional cell carcinoma of the upper urinary tract following total cystectomy for bladder cancer]

From 1975 to 1990, we treated 118 patients with urinary epithelial cancer, including 100 with primary bladder cancer, 13 with primary upper urinary tract cancer, and 5 with both diseases. Thirty-five patients with primary bladder cancer underwent total cystectomy. Upper urinary tract urothelial cancer developed in 4 patients (4.0%) and was detected only after cystectomy. Three patients had multiple bladder tumors before cystectomy and recurrent tumors under long-term bladder-preserving treatment. The other patient had had cystectomy for the primary bladder lesion. Our present policy is to perform urinary cytology once a month and intravenous urography once a year in patients with bladder cancer for early detection of secondary upper urinary tract cancer.