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Epidemiology and Presentation

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Urothelial Malignancies of the Upper Urinary Tract

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Abstract

Upper Urinary Tract (UUT) urothelial malignancy, a relatively uncommon urologic cancer, is defined as a neoplastic growth affecting the urothelial lining of the renal pyelocalyceal system and the ureter and likely represent a “field defect”, in that the entire urothelium is exposed to carcinogen and susceptible to malignant transformation (Sagalowsky in Campbell-Walsh Urology. Saunders Elsevier, Philadelphia, PA, 2011 [13]). Like patients with bladder transitional cell cancer, patients with UUT transitional cell cancer, have a similar age, sex, and race distribution in that the majority of the patients are older than 60 years, male and caucasian (David et al. in Cancer 1:1435–47, 2009 [1]). They also share some of the same risk factors such as smoking and occupational carcinogen exposure but UUT urothelial malignancy have some unique risk factors of its own, for example, being part of certain genetic syndrome and exposure to Aristolochic Acid (Colin et al. in BJU Int. 104:1436–40, 2009 [19]). In this chapter, the epidemiology, presentation and risk factors for upper urinary tract urothelial malignancy are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

Author acknowledges the contribution of Michael Stern, MD, Westchester Medical Health Network, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY and thanks him for his helpful comments and feedback.

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  1. Department of Urology, Westchester Medical Health Network/New York Medical College, 40 Sunshine Cottage Road, 19 Skyline 1S-B46, Valhalla, NY, 10595, USA

    Muhammad S. Choudhury

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Correspondence to Muhammad S. Choudhury .

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  1. Chief, Section of Endourology and Minimally Invasive Urology, Westchester Medical Health Network, Valhalla, New York, USA

    Majid Eshghi

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Choudhury, M.S. (2018). Epidemiology and Presentation. In: Eshghi, M. (eds) Urothelial Malignancies of the Upper Urinary Tract. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51263-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51263-1_1

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