Do histological variants in urothelial carcinoma of the bladder portend poor prognosis? A systematic review and meta-analysis

// Qingke Chen 1, * , Lei Li 2, * , Gongxian Wang 1 , Jieping Hu 1 , Ting Sun 1 and Bin Fu 1 1 Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330006, China 2 Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330006, China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Bin Fu, email: 792586870@qq.com Ting Sun, email: sunting2016@yeah.net Jieping Hu, email: hu_jieping@163.com Keywords: histological variants, squamous differentiation, urothelial carcinoma of the bladder, prognosis Received: November 16, 2016      Accepted: April 18, 2017      Published: May 03, 2017 ABSTRACT The clinical implications of histological variants in urothelial carcinoma of the bladder has been a subject of significant controversy with many unanswered questions that remain. To clarify whether histological variants presage poor prognosis for patients suffering from urothelial carcinoma of the bladder, we scoured through various electronic databases such as Medline, Web of Knowledge, and the Cochrane Library up to August 18, 2016. Experts were consulted, and references from relevant articles were scanned. We identified thirteen eligible studies which met the inclusion criteria, including 9,533 participants. The existing evidence indicates that histological variants in urothelial carcinoma of the bladder patients do not alter their prognosis.