Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Our purpose was to provide a state-of-the-art regarding the different non-surgical treatment modalities available for urologists in the modern management of upper urinary tract carcinoma (UTUC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was carried out on Medline and Embase databases: urinary tract; urothelial carcinoma; ureteral cancer; renal pelvis cancer; chemotherapy; radiotherapy; instillation. RESULTS: The medical treatment of UTUC is based on the extrapolation of data coming from bladder cancer studies. It is based on instillation of topical agents in the upper tract, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. However, the fact that UTUCs are scarce and the lack of randomized prospective trials do not provide definitive conclusions on the impact of these treatments. CONCLUSION: The optimal medical management of UTUC is mostly based on expert's opinion so far in combination with the surgical treatment. The international collaborations for UTUC that have been developed in recent years should provide concrete answers in the near future.