ABSTRACT
Objective: Recently few reports have reported high incidence of urinary bladder cancer in the Punjab region in India while others have shown high inorganic arsenic levels in the ground waters of the same region. Furthermore, the malignancy of the urinary bladder contributes significantly to the morbidity, mortality and thus adding to the burden on the healthcare and society. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis over a period of 4 years was undertaken to review all urinary bladder tumour biopsies, transurethral resection of bladder tumours (TURBT) and cystectomy specimens to study the histomorphological spectrum of the urinary bladder cancers according to the “WHO Classification of Tumours of the Urinary Tract”. The records of Pathology department were probed for urinary bladder specimens. Further demographic characteristics, clinical diagnosis, cystoscopic findings were retrieved from the patient’s files from the record section. The tissue section slides were then reviewed and results recorded. Results: In our cohort, 144 patients were from State of Punjab with about 50% belonging to the city where our hospital is located. Cystoscopic revealed papillary appearance in 112 out of 135 patients. Moreover, 111 cases (82.22 %) were unifocal. Urothelial neoplasms were the most common bladder tumours and Invasive Urothelial Carcinomas constituted the bulk of these. Conclusions: Our cohort comprised of relatively younger population with dominance of high grade urothelial carcinoma showing features of invasion on microscopy. Further, we observed that WHO/ISUP classification to be comprehensive and universally acceptable. The role of arsenic as a causative agent in urothelial neoplasms needs to be studied further.