Clinico-pathological features of bladder carcinoma: experience from a tertiary care hospital of Pakistan.

Unlabelled: Bladder carcinoma is most common urological malignancy in Pakistan. The objective of the study was to determine the clinico-pathological characteristics of histologically confirmed bladder carcinoma at a tertiary care hospital of South Punjab, Pakistan.

Methods: In two hundreds and twenty one patients (172 male and 49 female) bladder carcinoma was diagnosed from Jan 1998 to June 2005. All patients were evaluated with regards to clinical presentation, cystoscopic findings and histo-pathological data.

Results: Male female ratio was 3.5:1. The median age was 58 years (range 18-87 years). 65% men had history of cigarette smoking while 51% women had long history of smokeless tobacco (nasal snuff or chewable) use. Most patients presented with painless hematuria. Primary transitional cell carcinoma was the most common (i.e. 96%) histological variety of bladder carcinoma. 63% patients had muscle invasive disease at the time of presentation. Even in superficial bladder carcinoma, most patients had invasion of lamina propria (pT1 disease).

Conclusion: More than 90% of primary bladder carcinoma are of transitional cell variety and over 60% having muscle invasive disease at the time of diagnosis. Even in patients with superficial disease, majority (i.e. 98%) have invasion of lamina propria.