The role of exfoliative cytology in the management of bladder carcinoma.

Cytological analyses of bladder washings from 974 patients with disorders of the urinary tract are reported. The cytological findings were compared with the clinical and histological diagnoses. The histological grading of bladder tumours was based on the classification proposed by Bergkvist et al. No false positive diagnosis of malignancy was made in the 320 patients without tumour growth. The five cases with positive cytology had histologically verified carcinoma in situ. The frequency of cytological diagnosis of cancer increased with the histological grade of malignancy in the 428 patients with bladder neoplasm. Carcinoma was graded in smears according mainly to the degree of epithelial atypia. A comparison with the histological grading was attempted. Of 226 cases of bladder carcinoma treated with supervoltage irradiation, 108 had persistence or recurrence of carcinoma. The clinical diagnosis was cytologically confirmed in 92 per cent of these cases.