Histopathological review of transitional cell carcinoma of the upper urinary tract.

A histopathological review of 30 patients with transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the upper urinary tract showed that 21 patients had dysplastic epithelium adjacent to the tumour, irrespective of the degree of invasion; 20 patients had multifocal disease with some degree of dysplasia or carcinoma elsewhere. It is concluded that radical surgery should be performed whenever possible, even in the superficial low grade tumour.