Objective: To investigate the clinicopathological significance of Lymphovascular invasion in the ureteral transitional cell carcinoma after radical nephroureterectomy (RNU).
Methods: Retrospective review of 29 ureteral transitional cell carcinoma patients with lymphovascular invasion from January 2006 to December 2012 at our hospital was performed, and another 58 patients were matched as negative control in terms of gender, age, pathological staging, grading and pattern. All the data were calculated by using SPSS 20.0 software. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate overall survival and recurrence-free survival, and differences were assessed with the Log-rank statistic.
Results: Twelve patients died after a median follow-up of 36.76 months in the LVI group, and 7 patients died after a median follow-up of 41.60 months in the control group. The 1-year, 3-year and 5-year survival rates in LVI group were 93.0%, 68.2%, 49.2%, and in the control group were 98.2%, 91.9%, 81.8%. There were statistically significant differences of the total survival in the two groups (X2=8.695, P=0.003). Seventeen patients recurrence in the LVI group, and 12 patients in the control group. There were statistically significant differences of the recurrence-free survival in the two groups (X2=14.452, P<0.001).
Conclusions: In the ureteral transitional cell carcinoma patients after RNU, LVI led to the poor prognosis of the cancer, and this finding has important significance for the following-up and therapy.
