Clinical experience with the use of 5-ALA for the detection of superficial bladder cancer

We report about the experience obtained in the fluorescence cystoscopic evaluation of 647 patients investigated since 1993. Of all histologically confirmed tumors, 32 percent would have been missed with conventional cystoscopy. Only 16 of 38 CIS were also detected under white light. In patients with entirely normal or unspecifically inflamed appearing mucosa, 44 otherwise invisible malignant lesions could be localized by fluorescence, 16 of them being present in patients with negative bladder washing cytology. The specificity of fluorescence cystoscopy is comparable to white light cystoscopy. A prospective multi-center study was conducted to show, whether a fluorescence controlled transurethral two weeks revealed residual tumor in 53 percent in the white light arm compared to 33 percent in the fluorescence arm. This difference was statistically significant. Of the 33 percent tumor in the fluorescence arm, most was gathered within the resection margins of the first resection, indicating an insufficiently deep resection rather than a failure in detecting the lesion.