Abstract:
This is a case control study was carried out at Radiotherapy Isotopes
Center of Khartoum “RICK” during the period from November 2008 to
March 2009. The main aim of this study was to assess the
cytomorphologicals change in urine in patients receiving radiotherapy and to
correlate these changes with the dosage of radiotherapy. Specimens of urine
were collected from 120 individuals, of whom 60 patients had pelvic
neoplasms receiving radiotherapy as study group, and 60 full voided urine
samples were collected from healthy individuals as control group.
Voided urine specimens were collected and processed by the
conventional method for urine cytology and stained by Papanicolaou
staining method and examined microscopically.
Cytological atypias in form of cellular enlargement and nuclear
enlargement were detected in 9 (15 %) individuals and in form of
multinucleated cells in 4 (7%) of individuals in the study group. Whereas, no
evidence of cytological atypias was detected among control group. These
findings strongly prove the role of radiotherapy as a risk factor for
developing cytological atypias and these were found to be statistically
significant (P<0.05).
Inflammatory cells were seen in 43 (71%) of cases and 8 (13.3%) of
controls, and haematouria was seen in 14 (23.3%) of cases and in 2 (3.3%)
of controls. These indicate that radiotherapy is major factor for the presence
of the inflammatory cells (P<0.05) and haematouria (P<0.05).
In conclusion, radiotherapy can cause cytological atypia, haematouria
and can induce the presence of inflammatory cells in urine cytology. Urine
cytology is a simple and convenient method in the diagnosis and assessment
of pathological conditions of the urinary system. In view of these, we highly
recommend the introduction of urine cytology techniques in screening and
assessment of individuals who are at risk of developing bladder cancer.
