sensitivity of urine cytology to bladder CIS

Needless to say I defer to your doctors, but my understanding from my discussions with the docs I am seeing is that to be detectable by cytology, there has to be cells shed into the urine, and CIS may or may not shed cells, hence normal cytology results do not necessarily mean there is no CIS. But again, I defer to your docs or to others on the forum who are more knowledgeable than I. Good luck to you - hope all turns out well for you!

my cystoscopy was normal also.
as far as i know, high grade tumors like CIS cannot be seen in cystoscopy and that is why cytology is done which is sensitive to high grade.
cytology is not sensitive to low grade but cystoscopy is sensitive.
that is the reason why they do together.
this is what i have read but i am not sure if it is correct and that is why i am asking here.

I recently asked a very similar question of my urologist and separately a pathologist at Sloan Kettering because I wanted to know what predictive value urine cytology has - e.g., could I avoid a cystoscopy? From what they told me, cytology can be useful if there are cancer cells in the urine itself, but often times the urine contains what are just called "atypical" cells which means cells with unusual nuclei ("hyperchromatic") which could be precancerous or just normal for you. And if the urine contains nothing abnormal that does not mean there is no tumor or growth - just means whatever is there may not be shedding evidence into the urine. Doing a one-time cytology study thus may not tell you much; doing the same study over time does allow changes to be detected and that is more useful. But bottom line is that cytology is almost always done in conjunction with other techniques to help refine the diagnosis.

All that having been said - please understand that is my interpretation of what the doctors told me; not being a doctor myself, of course I encourage you to talk to your doctors who are the experts in your specific situation. Good luck to you!

My sympyoms over 3.5 month:

burning and frequent urination, blood in urine from time to time.
My cystoccopy was normal and cytology negative.
I did ultrasound of bladder and it was normal also.
I think it is possible that CIS may be missed in cystoscopy and ultrasound.
What is the sensitivity of urine cytology to CIS?

Note: I am 36 years old.