[Clinical study on occupational uroepithelial cancer].

We experienced 32 cases of occupational uroepithelial cancer at Jichi Medical School Hospital from 1974 to 1990. All of them were dyestuff workers who had been engaged in production or handling of benzidine, beta-naphthylamine or alpha-naphthylamine. In these 32 cases, upper urinary tract tumors were found in 7 cases, one of these having bilateral lesions. The mean age when the tumor of the urinary tract was first disclosed was 48 years old, with a range of 36 to 66 years old. The mean age of this occupational group was about 16 years younger than that of the spontaneous urinary tract tumor group in our hospital. We divided our cases into two groups according to duration of carcinogen exposure; less than 5 years and 5 years or more. However we did not obtain significant difference in the grade of tumors or prognosis between the two groups. But when we divided them into two groups according to the type of work; production group and handling group, 18 of 21 production workers had high grade tumors. On the other hand, only 3 of 11 handling workers had high grade tumors, which was a significant difference. Besides, 10 of 21 production workers or only one of 11 handling workers were fatal. The difference was also significant. There was no significant correlation among the type of work, the duration of exposure and the age of onset. In our study, we showed that the type of work was quite important to predict the grade of tumors and the prognosis in occupational uroepithelial cancer patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)