Urothelial Carcinoma Presentation

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Patient history
Past medical history is notable for hematuria, hypertension, non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, Warthin’s tumor of left parotid, pleomorphic adenoma of right parotid, tubular adenoma and adenomatous polyps of the colon, thyroid disorder, tonsillectomy, pilonidal cyst and arthritis.

Hospital course
A 79 year old male presented with gross hematuria and palpable right kidney hydronephrosis. Ureteroscopy found blockage of the right ureter by a mass and biopsy revealed features consistent with papillary urothelial carcinoma favoring high grade. A radical nephroureterectomy was performed.

Gross description
The right kidney and portion of ureter was surgically resected. Opening the ureter revealed two discrete tan-gray papillary lesions. One was 4.0 cm in length and 2.0 cm in open circumference and located 4.0 cm from the ureteropelvic junction and occluded the lumen. The other was 0.8 cm in length and 0.5 cm in open circumference, did not occlude the lumen and was located 2 cm from the ureteric margin. The remaining ureteric and renal pelvic mucosa was unremarkable. The kidney revealed markedly dilated renal pelvis and calyces.

Diagnosis
Microscopic examination of the larger occluding lesion is consistent with high grade papillary urothelial carcinoma which invades the muscularis propria (Fig. 1). The additional focus revealed high-grade papillary urothelial carcinoma with no invasion of the lamina propria or muscularis propria (Fig. 2). Also noted in random sampling of ureter and renal pelvic walls is focal urothelial carcinoma in situ (Fig. 3.)

Discussion
Urothelial carcinomas most commonly occur in the urinary bladder but can occur at any site which contains urothelium including the upper urinary tract from the ureteral orifice to the renal calyces. Cancers of the upper urinary tract account for 5-10% of all renal tumors and 5-7% of all urothelial tumors [1]. The types of urothelial tumors in the upper urinary tract mirror those that originate in the bladder. The four morphological patterns of growth include papilloma-papillary, invasive papillary, flat noninvasive carcinoma and flat invasive carcinoma [2]. Papillomas are benign, exophytic structures with finger-like papillae, central fibrovascular core with epithelium which resembles typical urothelium. Inverted papillomas can occur which are benign lesions, but extend into the lamina propria. Papillary urothelial neoplasms of low malignant potential (PUNLMPs) show thicker urothelium or diffuse nuclear enlargement with rare mitotic figures. Low grade papillary urothelial carcinomas are cohesive and maintain polarity with some nuclear atypia and infrequent mitotic figures. High grade papillary urothelial cancers have discohesive cells with large hyperchromatic nuclei, frank anaplasia and frequent mitotic figures.

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