[Treatments for advanced transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary tract: chemotherapy and operation]

The current status of treatments for advanced transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary tract with metastasis is reported. A total of 62 patients were treated in Nara Medical University Hospital and its affiliated hospitals between January, 1980 and June, 1993. All patients were divided into two categories; cases in which local recurrence and/or distant metastasis had developed during the followup study (group 1) (n = 32) and fresh cases with distant metastasis (group 2) (n = 30). Most of the metastatic sites were treated with chemotherapy alone or combination therapy including chemotherapy. As for clinical response of each case, CR + PR rate in group 1 (34%) was higher than that in group 2 (13%) (p < 0.1). As for prognosis, the survival rate in group 1 was significantly higher than that in group 2 (p < 0.05). In group 1, the survival of CR was significantly higher than that of the non-responders. No adjuvant therapy for invasive bladder cancer and post-operative adjuvant therapy for renal pelvic and/or ureteral cancer can be recommended to prevent local recurrence or distant metastasis. In addition, supporting therapy and dose intensified chemotherapy would lead to good prognosis in advanced urothelial cancer patients.