Radical Cystoprostatectomy in Patients with Behçet's Disease: The Report of Four Cases and Review of The Literature.

INTRODUCTION Behçet's disease (BD) is a chronic, relapsing, multisystemic inflammatory disease that is characterised by recurrent oral and genital ulceration with skin and ocular lesions. BD affects other areas of the body, including the joints, blood vessels, nervous system and gastrointestinal system. A BD diagnosis is based on clinical criteria, such as the criteria proposed by the International Study Group for BD and, more recently, the International Team for the Revision of the International Criteria for BD. According to the relationship between malignancy and BD, Fırat et al. found no difference in the incidences of malignancies in relation to BD compared to the incidences of malignancies in the normal population of Turkey. With regard to the association of BD with bladder cancer, there is only one reported case with a previous history of prolonged cyclophosphamide therapy. Therefore, it is very difficult to determine whether or not BD is related to the pathogenesis of bladder cancer. Also, the relationship of genitourinary cancer with BD is not yet known. There are only a few studies that refer to radical surgery in BD patients, and there is only one case report about radical cystoprostatectomy in a BD patient. Therefore, it is still not well known whether or not pelvic surgery in patients with BD is safe. A radical cystoprostatectomy is a routine surgery performed in our clinic. In this paper, we present our experience with four BD patients who underwent a radical cystoprostatectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection.