FREQUENCY OF TRANSITIONAL CELL CARCINOMA IN LOCAL SUBURBAN POPULATION OF KARACHI

1. Epidemiologically transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder represents 90–95% of cases in Europe, while 5% represents mostly squamous cell carcinoma. TCC of the bladder poses a significant worldwide clinical problem, with an estimated 54,200 new cases and 12,100 associated deaths reported in the United States in 1999 alone 2 . In more than 75% of patients, the most common sign is gross or microscopic haematuria, with the patient asymptomatic 3 . Thus, persistent dipstick-hematuria in the absence of symptoms must be investigated rigorously by excretory or retrograde urography. The relative frequency of histological subtype of bladder carcinoma depends on the clinical setting. About 90% of bladder carcinoma reported from the West is transitional cell type 4 . In large series reported from Egypt, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) accounted for 59–73% of bilharzial bladder cases 5 . The incidence of the TCC in North America has been steadily rising during the past years with more than 50,000 new cases annually reported 6 . The