Pelvic cancers: staging of 139 cases with lymphography and fine-needle aspiration biopsy.

One hundred thirty-nine patients with pelvic cancers (101 bladder carcinomas, 27 prostatic carcinomas, and 11 testicular tumors) considered for radical surgery were studied with lymphography and percutaneous fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy, and the results were correlated with lymphadenectomy. Adequate material for FNA was obtained in 97%, 88%, and 100% of the bladder, prostatic, and testicular tumors, respectively. For bladder carcinoma, the global accuracy was 58% for lymphography and 93% for FNA; the high false-negative rate for lymphography (48%) was lowered to 25% with FNA, providing that the obturator nodes were punctured.