Metastatic cancer involving bladder: a review

Abstract

Purpose: Bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer in men and the ninth most common cancer in women. Bladder is not a common site for metastasis of cancer and often goes undiagnosed in the clinical follow up of cancer patients. We reviewed the literature for published reports on metastatic cancer involving bladder.

Materials and methods: We searched MEDLINE, PubMed and OVID from 1953 to June 2005 for published reports on metastatic cancer involving bladder. They key words used were bladder, cancer and metastatic. A total of 2405 abstracts were reviewed. All relevant articles reporting metastatic cancer to the bladder were reviewed.

Results: We found 264 cases of metastasis to the bladder from various primary foci. We found that a majority of these malignancies had primary foci in the genitourinary tract and the colon and rectum. Of the malignancies arising from distant foci, melanomas appear to be the most common followed by breast and gastric carcinoma.

Conclusions: The definitive diagnosis of metastatic bladder cancers is often difficult, and poses a significant challenge to the physician, pathologist and the radiologist alike. Bladder adenocarcinomas are uncommon and any adenocarcinoma of the bladder should be viewed with a high index of suspicion for a metastatic cancer from a distant focus.