| General Information: |
Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) constitutes 90% of human bladder cancer, 75% of which are considered “superficial”, i.e., carcinoma in situ, non-invasive papillary TCC or minimally invasive TCC. Recurrence of superficial TCC or progression to muscle invasive TCC occurs in 50-80% and 15-25% of cases, respectively. Patients with TCC are monitored with cystoscopy and/or urine cytology for recurrent disease, both of which are relatively insensitive methods of testing. Numerous studies have correlated various chromosomal aneuploidies with TCC. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using a variety of probes has been utilized for detection of aneuploidies on cells from voided urine. The UroVysion Bladder Cancer Screening Kit (Abbott, Vysis) provides a FISH probe mixture that includes centromeric probes for chromosomes #3, #7 and #17 and a unique sequence probe for the p16 gene (located at 9p21). Specifically, concurrent extra copies of two or more chromosomes and/or loss of 9p21 are consistent with a diagnosis of recurrent TCC. |
