Lipid-Rich Variant of Urothelial Carcinoma Presenting as the Dominant Morphology in a Recurrent Tumor After Local Therapy
Challenging differential diagnosis, Rare disease, Educational Purpose (only if useful for a systematic review or synthesis)
Archi Patel, Rowena E. Velilla, Muhammad Salah Shurbaji
Department of Pathology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, USA
Am J Case Rep 2018; 19:478-481
DOI: 10.12659/AJCR.908317
Available online:
Published: 2018-04-23
BACKGROUND:
The lipid-rich variant is a rare and aggressive type of urothelial carcinoma (UCa), with less than 40 cases reported in the literature. This variant usually presents as an advanced-stage primary tumor.
CASE REPORT:
We report the case of a 61-year-old man with previous history of T1 high-grade conventional urothelial carcinoma treated with local therapy. The patient later presented with a new 6.5-cm exophytic bladder mass. Histopathological examination revealed a T2 urothelial carcinoma of the lipid-rich variant. Retrospective review of the previous biopsies confirmed conventional high-grade urothelial carcinoma, but scattered rare individual or small clusters of cells that resemble the lipid-rich variant urothelial carcinoma were also noted.
CONCLUSIONS:
The findings in this case suggest that the differential sensitivity of conventional urothelial carcinoma to local therapy may have allowed the lipid-rich variant to predominate in the recurrence. Pathologists should be aware of the lipid-rich variant of urothelial carcinoma. The prognostic significance of rare lipoblast-like cells among predominantly conventional urothelial carcinoma may requires further study.
Keywords: Carcinoma, Urinary Bladder Diseases, Urothelium
