Plasmacytoid urothelial carcinoma - A clinicopathological case series of an aggressive variant of urothelial cancer

Many new morphological variants of urothelial carcinoma of urinary bladder have been described in the literature, plasmacytoid/signet ring cell/diffuse variant being one of the rare amongst these. Till date, no case series has been reported from India, describing this variant. We retrospectively analyzed the clinicopathological data of 14 patients diagnosed at our center with plasmacytoid urothelial carcinoma. Seven cases (50%) were pure forms while the remaining 50% of cases had a concurrent conventional urothelial carcinoma component. Immunohistochemistry was performed to rule out other mimickers of this variant. Treatment-related data were available for seven patients, while follow-up was available for nine cases. Overall, plasmacytoid variant of urothelial carcinoma is considered to be an aggressive tumor with poor prognosis.