Non-invasive papillary carcinoma of the bladder associated with carcinoma in situ

We evaluated 129 patients with low grade, low stage transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder with a minimum followup of 5 years. In addition to the phenomena recognized as indicators of a serious clinical problem (grade greater than I, rapid recurrence, multiple tumors and lamina propria invasion) the identification of carcinoma in situ and/or atypia in normal, incidentally resected mucosa adjacent to the tumor was found to be a positive predictor for subsequent muscle invasion. Ten of 12 patients with carcinoma in situ and 9 of 25 patients with atypia were among 39 who experienced invasion.