Objectives: To evaluate the reliability of bladder transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) staging, comparing findings on computerized tomography (CT) with pathologic results after radical cystectomy.
Methods: We retrospectively review 115 consecutive patients with bladder TCC undergoing radical cystectomy. Preoperative CT findings were compared with pathology results obtained after cystectomy and lymphadenectomy.
Results: We found that as a whole CT showed a tendency to local overstaging of 27.8% for tumours infiltrating bladder wall only, and understaging of 36.5% Regarding lymph nodes involvement, CT overstaged 4.6% of patients and understaged 23.8%. CT was capable to detect only 7.15% pN positive cases. CT was unable to detect the only patient with intra-abdominal metastatic involvement.
Conclusions: Abdomino-pelvic CT has real limitations to detect extra vesical extension and lymph node metastasis in patients with bladder TCC.