Unusual presentation of upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma in Taiwan: Direct comparison from Taiwan-Japan UTUC Collaboration Cohort

OBJECTIVES To carry out a comparison of upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma characteristics and behavior between patients in Taiwan and Japan. METHODS A Taiwan urinary tract urothelial carcinoma cohort was obtained from Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, and a Japan urinary tract urothelial carcinoma cohort from Hirosaki University Hospital. The inclusion criteria were urinary tract urothelial carcinoma patients who underwent radical nephroureterectomy. Those who received perioperative chemotherapy were excluded. Finally, 765 patients in the Taiwan cohort and 325 in the Japan cohort were analyzed. The end-point of this study was to study the natural course of urinary tract urothelial carcinoma within 5 years between these two groups. RESULTS The main finding was that urinary tract urothelial carcinoma patients in Taiwan were younger (P