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Prognostic significance of fluorescent in situ hybridisation in the follow-up of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

AIM
To evaluate the potential contribution of a fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) as prognostic indicator of the risk of recurrence or progression in patients undergoing follow-up for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).


PATIENTS AND METHODS
A total of 126 consecutive patients with a history of NMIBC being followed-up with urinary cytology and cystoscopy at a referral centre were studied. Patients with carcinoma in situ, or tumour stage higher than pT1 were excluded. A UroVysion FISH kit was used to detect four chromosomal abnormalities, specifically, locus 9p21, Ch 3, 7, and 17. Three FISH patterns were defined: negative; low-risk positive, i.e. positive staining for 9p21 and/or Ch3 abnormalities; and high-risk positive, i.e. positive staining for Ch7 and/or 17.


RESULTS
Overall 73 out of 126 patients (57.9%) had a positive urinary FISH test. After a median time of 14 months, 46 FISH-positive patients underwent recurrence (36.5%) and in 15 patients there was progression of disease (11.9%). Among positive patients, the low-risk category was found in 34, and the high-risk in 39. Low-risk FISH-positive patients had a higher rate of recurrence as compared to FISH-negative patients, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.6. The recurrence rate was even greater in patients with a high-risk positive test, with an HR of 1.9. The limitation of the study was that the impact of intravesical treatment was not assessed.


CONCLUSION
The urinary FISH test can be used as an aid in predicting the risk of recurrence during follow-up of patients with history of NMIBC.