Dialysis in Patients with Upper Urinary Tract Transitional Cell Carcinoma

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

In some patients with primary malignant disease of the kidney the only way of achieving a cure may involve radical surgery. If the tumour is bilateral or involves a solitary kidney, renal failure may be unavoidable. The role of dialysis and transplantation in these patients following "curative" cancer surgery is not clear. A review of the literature and experience with 4 patients who ultimately had bilateral nephrectomies for multiple recurrent upper tract urothelial malignancy is reported. These 4 patients remained free of tumour recurrence on dialysis at 5, 8, 12 and 72 months respectively since commencing dialysis, although 2 have died from unrelated causes. It would seem reasonable to offer dialysis followed by subsequent transplantation in this group of patients after a period of 1 to 2 years has elapsed without any evidence of malignant recurrence.