Trisomy 20 in a papillary urothelial carcinoma of the ureter.

To contribute to the knowledge on tumorigenesis and the evolution of urothelial carcinoma of the ureter, we analyzed the clinical, histological, and cytogenetic aspects of a case. Primary cell cultures obtained from tumor specimens showed a trisomy of chromosome 20 where the c-src proto-oncogene, already described in literature as having an important role in the etiology and progression of some tumors, is located. In our case trisomy 20 is the only present marker and for this reason we think that it could play a role in the tumorigenesis of the urothelial carcinoma of the ureter.