Relationship between papillary and nodular transitional cell carcinoma in the human urinary bladder.

A total of 186 cystectomized specimens were examined by step-sectioning to determine the relation between papillary and nodular transitional cell carcinomas of the urinary bladder. Tumors were classified as papillary (PC), nodular (NC), and carcinoma in situ (CIS) according to their gross and microscopic configurations. These cases, grouped as simple combinations of PC, NC, and CIS, namely, PC, PC + CIS, PC + NC, PC + NC + CIS, NC, NC + CIS, and CIS, were analyzed with respect to (a) the time from the initial symptom to cystectomy, (b) the treatment before cystectomy, (c) the grade, (d) the stage of tumors, (e) the multiplicity of tumors, (f) the presence of papillary structures inside or on the surface of nodular carcinoma, and (g) data on survival after cystectomy. Of the tumors, 17 were classified as CIS and 80 as PC and PC + CIS. Studies on 57 cases suggested an early change from PC to a mixture of PC and NC through papillonodular carcinoma during development, whereas 6 showed late development of NC during repeated recurrence of PC. These courses indicate that some cases of NC developed from PC. On the other hand, 26 cases exhibited direct progression from CIS to NC. Thus nodular invasive carcinomas may develop in two ways: by emergence of a more anaplastic cell population within a preexisting low grade papillary carcinoma; and by de novo development of an invasive nodular carcinoma directly from CIS.