Morphometry of bladder cancer cells in tissue sections according to histological grade of malignancy

Morphometrical analysis was performed on cells of bladder carcinomas taken from patients who had undergone surgery at the National Cancer Center Hospital. Ten cases each of the following groups were compared as to the nuclear area, standard deviation of nuclear areas, cytoplasmic area, and nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio: normal mucosa and grade I transitional cell carcinoma obtained by transurethral resection (TUR), and normal mucosa, grade II, III and in situ transitional cell carcinomas obtained by total cystectomy. There were significant differences in both nuclear area and nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio between normal epithelium obtained by TUR and grade I carcinoma. There were also significant differences in nuclear area and nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio among the four total cystectomy groups. In this cytomorphometrical analysis, cells of carcinoma in situ had the characteristics of grade II or grade III carcinoma cells. The morphometrical features of the two advanced cases of grade II carcinoma revealed that the nuclear area, the standard deviation of the nuclear area and the cytoplasmic area were rather small, whereas the nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio was almost average for the grade II group. The results of this analysis, especially those for the nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio, corresponded well with the histological grading of bladder carcinoma.