CASE REPORT article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Genitourinary Oncology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1632624
A case of carcinoma in situ of the bladder misdiagnosed as "chronic prostatitis" for a long time
Provisionally accepted
- 1Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China
- 2Hebei Chest Hospital, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China
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Background: Carcinoma in situ of the bladder has no specific clinical symptoms and is easily confused with inflammatory lesions of the bladder and urethra. It is usually not considered as the primary diagnosis and requires cystoscopic biopsy to confirm the diagnosis.Case presentation: A 44-year-old male patient was diagnosed with chronic prostatitis due to "intermittent urinary frequency, dysuria, and urethral dribbling after defecation" and was treated with intermittent anti-infective and symptomatic therapy for 2 years, with symptoms recurring after discontinuing the medication. This patient underwent urine exfoliative cytology which revealed exfoliated cancer cells and proceeded to cystoscopic biopsy, which did not reveal a pathologic basis for the cancer. The diagnosis of carcinoma in situ of the bladder was finally confirmed only after a diagnostic transurethral bladder mucosal electrodesiccation and pathologic examination. BCG bladder instillation was then performed for up to one and a half years and the patient recovered.Bladder carcinoma in situ can present with urinary irritation symptoms similar to those of prostatitis, and is therefore easily misdiagnosed as chronic prostatitis. It is recommended that patients with recurrent urinary frequency and dysuria as the main symptoms should undergo urine exfoliative cytology routinely if bladder tumor cannot be ruled out, and cystoscopy and biopsy should be performed if necessary to rule out carcinoma in situ of the bladder.
Keywords: Baldder, Chronic Prostatitis, Carcinoma in situ (CIS), Patholgoy, cytology, Biopsy
Received: 21 May 2025; Accepted: 25 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Zhu, Liu and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Chongbin Li, Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China
Wei Li, Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China
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