The relationship of mast cell density with grade, depth of invasion and recurrence in papillary urothelial carcinomas of the bladder

In this retrospective study; we aimed to investigate the relationship between mast cell count in bladder-derived papillary urothelial carcinomas and some prognostic parameters. We determined these parameters as grade (tumor grade), depth of invasion (stage) and recurrence. Two hundred and three cases diagnosed with papillary urothelial carcinoma in Gaziantep University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pathology were included in this study. These cases were divided into seven subgroups as low and high grade, pTa, pT1, pT2, pT3, and recurrence/no recurrence. "toluidine blue", a histochemical stain, was applied to the paraffin blocks of the patients. Mast cell counts were calculated by counting fifty high-magnification fields for each case. The relationships between mast cell counts and age, gender, grade, depth of invasion, and presence/absence of recurrence were examined. Mast cell counts were higher in the high-grade noninvasive group than in the low-grade noninvasive group and were statistically highly significant (p<0.01). Increasing the number of mast cells was observed among the groups diagnosed with high grade pTa, pT1, pT2 and pT3 as the stage increased, and a statistically significant correlation was found between them (p<0.01). Low-grade noninvasive patients were divided into recurrence and non-recurrence. The number of mast cells in the group with recurrence was statistically significantly higher than the group without recurrence (p<0.05). Many studies have shown that mast cells secrete mediators that enable tumor invasiveness and cause angiogenesis. In patients with a diagnosis of papillary urothelial carcinoma, information about the behavior of the tumor can be obtained with the number of mast cells that will be routinely checked. In addition, c-kit inhibitor drugs that will target mast cells and their functions can be used with chemotherapeutic agents applied in bladder cancer, and survival rates can be increased.