[Usefulness of nuclear morphometry as predictive factor of progression in bladder papillary carcinoma]

Lately, nuclear morphometry methods are being used to analyze the malignant potential of tumoral cells. This paper presents a retrospective study of a series of 163 patients with the three histological grades (WHO), of superficial papillary transitional cell carcinoma (pTa-pT1) of the bladder with a mean follow-up of 60 months. A morphometric analysis of the initial tumour biopsies was made. Mean nuclear area (NA) and its standard deviation (NASD) were measured in a semi-automatic image analyzer (MOP-videoplan, Kontron). NA and NASD show increasingly higher values with increased grade (p < or = 0.0001). NA and NASD values raise in those progressing to muscle-infiltrant stage; tumours were, then, divided into two morphometric groups: small NA (< 50 microns 2) and large NA (> 50 microns 2); the difference between them being statistically significant. The likelihood of no tumoral progression at 30, 60 and 90 months was, respectively, 96, 94 and 92 percent, form small NAs, and 76, 65 and 64 percent for large NA (p < or = 0.0001).