UROLOGICAL SURVEY
UROLOGICAL ONCOLOGY
Association of hematuria on microscopic urinalysis and risk of urinary tract cancer
Jung H; Gleason JM; Loo RK; Patel HS; Slezak JM; Jacobsen SJ
Department of Urology, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
J Urol. 2011; 185: 1698-703
PURPOSE: We determined the incidence of urinary tract cancer in patients with hematuria, stratified risk by age, gender and hematuria degree, and examined current best policy recommendations.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a large, retrospective population based cohort study of patients who underwent microscopic urinalysis during 2004 and 2005 in a large managed care organization. Patients were followed for 3 years for urinary tract cancer.
RESULTS: We identified 772,002 patients who underwent urinalysis during the study period. After exclusions due to previous hematuria, age less than 18 years, pregnancy, urinary tract infection, inpatient status and prior urinary tract cancer 309,402 patients were available for analysis, of whom 156,691 had hematuria. The overall 3-year incidence of urinary tract cancer in those with hematuria was 0.68%. Older age (greater than 40 years OR 17.0, 95% CI 11.2-25.7), greater hematuria (greater than 25 red blood cells per high power field OR 4.0, 95% CI 3.5-4.5) and male gender (OR 4.8, 95% CI 4.2-5.6) were associated with a higher risk of cancer. The American Urological Association definition of microhematuria had 50% sensitivity, 84% specificity and 1.3% positive predictive value.
CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of urinary tract cancer is low even in individuals with microhematuria. Thus, current best policy recommendations do not perform well. Since older age, male gender and greater hematuria are associated with a higher risk of cancer, future studies should evaluate strategies that target these populations.
Editorial Comment
Although under review, the last AUA Best Practice Policy Recommendations suggest evaluation in patients who have at least 2 urinalyses with 3 or more RBC/HPF within a 12-month period as well as those with gross hematuria (1).
The authors have proposed an approach of evaluating patients older than 40 years with at least 1 urinalysis showing greater than 25 RBC/HPF. Compared to the AUA method this alternative strategy could have spared 25,917 evaluations and detected 6 more cases of urinary tract cancer. Compared to the CUA approach (AUA restricted to patients > 40 years) it could have spared 11,584 evaluations and detected 16 more cases.
Older age, greater hematuria and male gender were predictors of urinary tract cancer, in accordance to a more restrictive protocol based on home dipstick testing to identify hematuria in a limited age spectrum (> 50 years), including only men with a proved beneficial impact on positive cases of bladder cancer (2).
However, future studies are to be greatly improved including evaluation of known risk factors, such as smoking history, occupational exposure to chemicals or dyes, gross hematuria, urological disease, irritative voiding symptoms, urinary tract infection, analgesic abuse and pelvic radiation in prospective, randomized trials of general population.
Furthermore, confounding clinical contexts, such as menstruation, vigorous exercise and cases of recent urinary tract instrumentation should be excluded and also the complete evaluation of urine cytology, upper tract imaging and cystoscopy are necessary for all patients to provide the best evidence for a safe actualization of the last recommendations that age 10 years.
Dr. Leonardo Oliveira Reis
Assistant Professor of Urology
University of Campinas, Unicamp
Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
E-mail: reisleo@unicamp.br
- 1. Grossfeld GD, Wolf JS Jr, Litwan MS, Hricak H, Shuler CL, Agerter DC, et al.: Asymptomatic microscopic hematuria in adults: summary of the AUA best practice policy recommendations. Am Fam Physician. 2001; 63: 1145-54.
- 2.Madeb R, Messing EM: Long-term outcome of home dipstick testing for hematuria. World J Urol. 2008; 26: 19-24.
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
30 May 2011 -
Date of issue
Apr 2011
