Nephrogenic metaplasia of the bladder

Our plain-English summary of Nephrogenic metaplasia of the bladder, by E.B. Sussman, M. Brice, G.F. Gray (The Journal of Urology, 1974).

The study

• Authors: E.B. Sussman, M. Brice, G.F. Gray
• Journal: The Journal of Urology
• Published: 1974;111(1):34-5
• Cited by: 40 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This article does not concern asbestos. It reports four cases of nephrogenic metaplasia (also called nephrogenic adenoma) of the bladder, which the authors described as a rare benign condition that may be misinterpreted as cancer. The patients were four white men aged 57 to 71 treated at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center. Several had long histories of urinary infection, stones, prostate enlargement or bladder surgery. Each had one or more small papillary bladder lesions removed through the urethra. Under the microscope, all lesions contained tubules resembling kidney tubules. In all cases the surrounding tissue showed inflammation indicating cystitis. In two cases the authors saw a direct transition between the lesion and the normal bladder lining. Follow-up was reported for three patients, and none had a recurrence after 9, 3 and 2 years. The authors also reviewed 50 cases of cystitis cystica in their files and found kidney-like tissue in none. The authors concluded that the condition is a specific form of metaplasia rather than a hamartoma.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: case series of 4 case reports, with microscopic (histopathology) description
• Who was studied: 4 white men aged 57, 69, 65 and 71 with bladder lesions, treated at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center, New York; dates of treatment not given
• Main results:
  • The authors described the condition as rare, benign and liable to be misinterpreted as a malignant lesion
  • All 4 patients' lesions contained epithelial tubules resembling renal distal convoluted tubules or collecting ducts
  • In all 4 cases the stroma was edematous and inflamed, indicating cystitis
  • In 2 of the 4 cases a definite transition was seen between the lesion's lining and adjacent normal transitional epithelium
  • Case 1: no evidence of tumor recurrence for 9 years
  • Case 2: no clinical evidence of tumor recurrence for 3 years
  • Case 3: no recurrence at cystoscopy 2 years later
  • In a review of 50 cases of cystitis cystica in the authors' files, none contained epithelium resembling renal tubules
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that their study supports the view that these lesions are a specific form of metaplasia rather than a hamartoma

Related studies

• Nephrogenic adenoma: a form of adenomatous metaplasia of the bladder. A clinical and electron microscopical study — E.A. Molland, P.A. Trott, et al. (1976)
• Nephrogenic metaplasia (adenomatoid tumors) of bladder — J.A. Kaswick, J. Waisman, et al. (1976)
• Nephrogenic adenoma of bladder — E. Kaany, S.L. Werner (1974)
• Spontaneous urinary bladder perforation: An unusual presentation of well-differentiated papillary peritoneum mesothelioma — A. Serao, F. Ambrosini, et al. (2022)
• Nephrogenic adenoma of bladder — S.I. Tannenbaum, S.A. Kramer, et al. (1980)
• Nephrogenic adenoma of the bladder in children — S.R. Nold, W.J. Terry, et al. (1989)

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