Follow-up of patients with noninvasive and superficially invasive bladder cancer.

Low-grade carcinomas (pTaG1) comprise 50% of all stage pTa-pT1 carcinomas and have an almost benign course of disease. Follow-up policies may be changed so that patients with a single tumor at diagnosis and a negative cystoscopy at 3 months should be examined 9 months later. Check cystoscopies may be performed with flexible instruments and a considerable number of the recurrences could be managed with fulguration under urethral anesthesia only. Because low-grade carcinomas are so common, the seriousness of the other tumors in stages pTa-pT1 is not fully appreciated. Patients with high-grade carcinoma (pTaG2-G3, pT1G2-G3) have at least a 70% risk for recurrence and a 20% risk for stage progression. The course of disease is more unpredictable than for patients with low-grade carcinoma, and there are at present no firm data that support a change in follow-up routines. Routine follow-up urographies are not necessary.