Between June, 1987 and December, 1993, ten patients with solitary kidney after total nephroureterectomy for advanced upper urothelial transitional cell carcinoma were treated with chemotherapy (M-VAC or modified M-VAC). This series comprised 6 males and 4 females between 27 and 81 years of age (mean age: 58.5 years). The site of primary lesions was the renal pelvis in one case, ureter in 5 and renal pelvis and ureter in 4. Histologically, these extripated tumors were all identified as transitional cell carcinoma, the stage being pT3 and pT4 in 9 and grade being G3 in 8 of the 10 patients. Among the 13 cases including the 3 cases of recurrence after first line chemotherapy, 7 had lesions suitable for the evaluation. Two of the 7 cases achieved complete response and four achieved partial response, resulting in an 86% response rate. Of the 10 patients, 4 died of metastasis of carcinoma and the others are still alive. The average period after operation among 10 patients was 25 months. Side effects related to this chemotherapy were as follows: general fatigue, nausea or vomiting and alopecia 100%, leucocytepenia (< or = 1,000/mm3) 23%, anemia (RBC < or = 250 x 10(4)/mm3) 62%, thrombocytopenia (< or = 5 x 10(4)/mm3) 46%. However, nephrotoxicity in spite of solitary kidney was not noticed in any patients. From our experience, we suggest that M-VAC or modified M-VAC chemotherapy are safe against patients with a solitary kidney after nephroureterectomy for advanced transitional cell carcinoma of the upper urinary tract.