A Diagnostic Nomogram of Pathologic Grade for Preoperative Risk Stratification in Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma

Abstract

Background: To develop a novel nomogram to improve the preoperative diagnosis of pathological grade of upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC). Methods: Retrospective study was conducted with 245 patients with UTUC treated by radical nephroureterectomy from 2002 to 2016. Of the cohort, 57.6% received ureteroscopic (URS) biopsy and 35.9% received urine cytology examination. Preoperative clinical characteristics and examination results were collected. Final pathological grade was diagnosed by postoperative pathology. Univariable and multivariable binary logistic regressions were applied to establish a preoperative predictive model for tumor grade, and significant factors were included in the nomogram. The area under curve (AUC) was used to show the predictive efficacy, and the calibration plot was drawn for validation. Results: Of the 245 patients, 72.7% were diagnosed with pathological high-grade disease. Age (odds ratio [OR] = 1.03, P =.039), sessile (OR = 3.86, P =.021), positive urinary cytology (OR = 6.87, P =.035), and biopsy high-grade result (OR = 10.85, P