The pathologist's role in the detection of rare variants of bladder cancer and analysis of the impact on incidence and type detection.

BACKGROUND: Histology is one of the most important factors determining the prognosis of bladder cancers and rare variants are generally associated with decreased disease specific survival compared to pure transitional cell carcinomas. We believe that rare bladder cancer variants are likely underdiagnosed in the absence of a dedicated uro-pathologist in many centers. The objective of this study is to evaluate the contribution of a dedicated uro-pathologist on the identification of rare bladder cancer variants. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical and histological records of all patients which underwent a radical cystectomy and lymph node dissection between January 2000 and Septe…