Intracavitary therapy of noninvasive transitional cell carcinomas of the upper urinary tract. A review of the literature.

Noninvasive (stages Ta, T1, Tis) transitional cell carcinomas of the upper urinary tract are suitable for a conservative therapeutic approach. Intracavitary therapy (alone or as adjuvant treatment) has recently been proposed and successfully used by some authors. Even though bacillus Calmette-Guérin is the most frequent agent employed, chemotherapeutic drugs, such as mitomycin C and thiotepa, have also been successfully used. The current information available in the literature is therefore reviewed. According to the data available, intracavitary therapy is a worthwhile conservative therapeutic option for noninvasive upper urinary tract urotheliomas with acceptable side effects. For this reason it may be included in the routine urological armamentarium.