Carcinoma of the upper urinary tract is a relatively rare neoplasm, and few studies have dealt with clinicopathological findings and prognosis in a large number of cases. The purpose of our investigation was to look for a possible relation between E-cadherin (E-CD) immunoreactivity and clinicopathologic findings or clinical outcome in transitional-cell carcinoma of the upper urinary tract (TCC-UUT). To this end, we investigated E-CD immunoreactivity in 154 cases of TCC-UUT. E-CD immunoreactivity was recognized as being of "normal" pattern in 29.2% of samples. The relationship between E-CD immunoreactivity and clinicopathologic findings was significant for stage, grade and pattern of growth. The 5-year disease-free rate for 147 cases and 5-year overall survival rate for 154 cases were 55.7% and 71.5%, respectively. A univariate analysis of survival revealed that stage, grade, pattern of growth and E-CD immunoreactivity all had a significant effect on disease-free and overall survival rates. In the final models of multivariate analysis, however, we found that, for disease-free survival and for overall survival, only stage was a factor for progression or prognosis. Detection of E-CD immunoreactivity appears to be of limited value in deciding the prognosis of TCC-UUT.