Types of Bladder Histologies

The most common cancers in the bladder are urothelial carcinomas (also called transitional cell carcinoma) that derive from the transitional epithelium. Urothelial carcinomas account for more than 90 percent of all bladder cancers.

ICD-O-3 code ICD-O-3.2 Description Notes
8120/2
  • Urothelial carcinoma in situ
8120/3 Invasive urothelial carcinoma
  • Clear cell (glycogen-rich) urothelial carcinoma
  • Conventional urothelial carcinoma
  • Diverticular carcinoma
  • Infiltrating urothelial carcinoma
  • Large nested urothelial carcinoma
  • Lipid-rich urothelial carcinoma
  • Microcystic urothelial carcinoma
  • Nested urothelial carcinoma
  • Sarcomatoid urothelial carcinoma
Tubular and microcystic urothelial carcinoma 		These urothelial subtypes combined account for the vast majority of bladder tumors.
8130/2 Papillary urothelial (transitional cell) carcinoma in situ
  • Low-grade papillary urothelial carcinoma with inverted growth pattern
  • Non-invasive papillary urothelial carcinoma, low-grade
  • Non-invasive papillary urothelial carcinoma, high-grade
  • Low-grade: often recurs after treatment but rarely invades the muscular wall of bladder or spreads to other parts of the body. Patients rarely die of low-grade bladder cancer
  • High-grade: commonly recurs in the bladder, strong tendency to invade muscular wall of the bladder and spread to other parts of the body. Treated more aggressively than low-grade bladder cancer and is much more likely to result in death. Almost all deaths from bladder cancer result from high-grade disease
8130/3 Papillary urothelial (transitional cell) carcinoma, invasive
8041/3 Small cell carcinoma
8070/3 Squamous cell carcinoma Squamous cell carcinoma tumors must be pure and not mixed with other histologies. Rare and associated with smoking.
8140/3 Adenocarcinoma, NOS Adenocarcinoma tumors must be pure and not mixed with other histologies.

For more information on bladder histologies, see the Solid Tumor Rules, Urinary section: https://seer.cancer.gov/tools/solidtumor/

Updated: April 22, 2025

Suggested Citation

SEER Training Modules: Types of Bladder Histologies. U.S. National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute. Cited 30 December 2025. Available from: https://training.seer.cancer.gov.