Carcinoma in diverticulum of female urethra.

A case of carcinoma originating in a diverticulum of the urethra in a female patient is presented. A review of 143 cases of carcinoma of the female urethra treated from 1948 to 1984 at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute at Houston disclosed 6 additional patients with diverticular carcinoma. Analysis of their clinical features, treatments--various combinations of primary excision, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy--and survival results indicate that survival is primarily a function of grade. Only 40 cases of carcinoma in urethral diverticula are recorded in the world literature. The majority are adenocarcinomas, and the most frequent presenting symptoms are dysuria, frequency, and urgency. Radiotherapy successfully established long-term control of the disease with low morbidity in all of our patients who had low-grade tumors.