Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder in patients aged 30 years or younger: clinicopathological analysis and expression of fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) of 45 cases

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the clinicopathological features, prognostic outcomes and fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) protein expression status of a large series (n = 45) of urothelial carcinoma of bladder patients aged 30 or younger, retrospectively. We identified an age gradient (an age of 25, 26 and 27 years), classified patients as ≤25 or >25, ≤26 or >26, ≤27 or >27 years, respectively, and compared variables including recurrence events and FGFR3 expression patterns between different groups. Patients aged 25 years or younger were less likely to experience tumor recurrence (p = 0.046), were more likely to develop smaller size tumors (p = 0.040) and expressed more proportion of negative pattern of FGFR3 protein (p = 0.036). Patients aged 25 years or younger were less likely to develop tumor recurrence and revealed more proportion of negative pattern of FGFR3 expression than those aged 26–30 years did. We identified patients aged 25 years or younger as the true “young” urothelial carcinoma patients, carrying distinct clinical outcomes and molecular tumorigenesis.