The combined application of urinary liquid-based cytology with fluorescence in situ hybridization and p16/Ki-67 dual immunostaining is valuable for improving the early diagnosis of upper tract urothelial carcinomas.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the diagnostic values of urine liquid-based cytology (LBC), fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and p16/Ki-67 dual immunostaining in the detection of upper tract urothelial carcinomas (UTUCs).

METHODS: Sixty-one patients with UTUCs were retrospectively analyzed. All patients were diagnosed both by urine cytology and by FISH, and histologically confirmed as UTUCs. Thirty-two patients had been stained with p16/Ki-67 dual labeling.

RESULTS: The sensitivities for low-grade UTUCs (LGUTUCs) and high-grade UTUCs (HGUTUCs) were 33.3% and 67.4% by LBC, 60% and 69.6% by FISH, and 12.5% and 66.7% by p16/Ki-67 dual labeling, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that LBC was more suitable to identify HGUTUCs, FISH was highly valuable for predicting LGUTUCs, and p16/Ki-67 dual labeling was useful for distinguishing HGUTUCs from LGUTUCs. The combined application of these methods may improve the sensitivity or accuracy in the detection or diagnosis of UTUCs.