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[Tumors of the upper urinary tract: epidemiology, clinical, and diagnosis].

OBJECTIVE
To review the epidemiological, clinical and diagnostic aspects of upper urinary tract tumors (UUTT).


METHODS
The clinical records of 105 patients with UUTT were reviewed. There were 114 functioning units in total. Data on distribution according to sex, age at presentation, involved side, focality, localization, association with bladder tumor, risk factors, clinical features, radiological and histological findings were analyzed. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed and the means and frequency rates were estimated.


RESULTS
Of the 105 patients, 88 (83.8%) were male and 17 (16.1%) were female, accounting for a male to female ratio of 5.1:1. The mean age was 68.3 +/- 10.5 years (range 24-88). The tumor involved the left side in 52 cases (49.5%), the right side in 49 cases (46.6%) and 4 cases (3.8%) had bilateral involvement; 84 (80%) were unifocal and 21 (20%) were multifocal. The pyelocaliceal region was compromised in 41.2% (47/114) of the functioning units, the lumbar ureter in 14% (16/114), the sacral ureter in 7% (8/114), the pelvic ureter in 28.9% (33/114) and the entire upper urinary tract in 8.7% (10/114). UUTT was associated with a bladder tumor in 60.9%. The bladder tumor and UUTT presented simultaneously in 26 cases (29.8%). The bladder tumor presented before the UUTT in 35 cases (40.2%) and in 26 cases (29.8%) it presented after. Smoking was found to be the most important risk factor. Hematuria was the most common reason for consultation (67.6%), followed by flank pain (23.8%), and 13.3% were asymptomatic. The most common urographic finding was a filling defect (46.4%), followed by loss of function (36.8%) and hydronephrosis (20.1%). Loss of renal function was observed in 66% of the cases with metastasis. Histologically, 99% were transitional cell carcinoma, basically moderately differentiated (68.8% grade II) and non infiltrating (58.6% pTa-pT1).


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings are largely in agreement with the data published in the literature, although we have found a very high incidence of UUTT associated with bladder tumor in our series.