[Clinical and pathological study of renal pelvic and ureteral tumors].

This report is on 25 patients with primary urothelial tumor in the upper urinary tract who were admitted to our hospital from February, 1969 through January, 1983. The patients were 18 males and 7 females with a mean age of 66 years. The affected side was the right side in 11 cases, the left side in 12 and bilateral in 1 case (bilateral asynchronous ureteral tumor). The major symptoms were hematuria (69%) and flank pain (25%), with rare signs of fever. Total nephroureterectomy with bladder cuff was employed as the surgical method in 19 out of 25 cases. We performed conservative surgery in the case of non-infiltrating bilateral ureteral tumor. Pathologically, all 25 patients had transitional cell carcinoma. Over-all survival rate at 3 and 5 years was 64% and 51%, respectively. Our findings coincided with earlier reports by others that the prognosis of primary tumors in the upper urinary tract is related to the grade and stage of the tumor.