Clinical Panurothelial Disease in Patients with Superficial Bladder Tumors

Purpose: We established the prognostic and therapeutic implications of panurothelial involvement in patients with superficial bladder tumors for optimizing therapeutic approaches in those at risk for panurothelial involvement.Materials and Methods: We studied the records of 35 patients with clinical panurothelial disease. Since all of these patients presented with high risk superficial bladder cancer during followup, they were included in specific therapeutic and followup regimens. Radical procedures or conservative therapies were indicated mainly according to pathological examination and the recurrence pattern.Results: Panurothelial involvement was a late stage of a recurrent and diffuse process that essentially developed in sequences, in which all patients presented with high risk superficial bladder tumors. This process involved continued relapse after panurothelial involvement developed. Notably 19 patients (79.1%) at risk for recurrence had repeat relapse in the urothelium. In the upper urinary tract...