Primary tumors of the renal pelvis: evaluation of clinical and pathological features in a consecutive series of 10 years.

We operated on 36 patients for primary carcinoma of the renal pelvis between 1975 and 1984. The patients were evaluated for etiological factors, symptoms, diagnostic modalities, treatment, histological type and grade of dedifferentiation, presence of invasion, abnormalities in the urothelium adjacent to the tumor, abnormalities in the epithelium of the collecting tubules and patient survival. No etiological factors were found. The main symptom was hematuria. Diagnosis was made by excretory urography with tomography. Urine cytology examination was of no help in the diagnosis. The survival was high in patients with low grade tumors, tumors without invasion and tumors without coexisting atypia in the adjacent urothelium but it was poor in those with high grade tumors, tumors with invasion and tumors with atypia of the adjacent urothelium.