Effect of Supervoltage Therapy for Carcinoma of the Bladder on the Outflow from Upper Urinary Tract to Bladder

Abstract

A series of 111 patients was followed up in order to study the effect of radiation therapy on normal ureteric orifices and on orifices constricted by bladder tumours of infiltrative growth.

In cases of bladder tumour the outflow from the upper urinary tract is appropriately studied and followed up with urography. The examination should be carried out in close connexion with any surgical or radiotherapeutic procedure. Ureteric obstruction caused by a tumour may wholly or in part be relieved by radiation therapy, even in cases in which urography has failed to demonstrate any signs of function.

The outflow through healthy ureteric orifices not infiltrated by tumour is not impaired by the radiation therapy.

An impairment in outflow after the treatment almost always reflects progression of the tumour and calls for continued clinical investigation.