ABSTRACT
Introduction: Bladder Cancer is one of the most common urologic malignancies. The risk of recurrence in the same place or a new growth elsewhere in the urothelium, with the same stage or higher, is always with the bladder cancer patient. Therefore, a close follow-up and surveillance is of fundamental importance. Cystoscopy is limited in its ability to discover early urothelial changes. Urine cytology does not have enough sensitivity
Objective: The aim of our study is to compare the sensitivity and specificity of urinary tumor marker Urinary Bladder Cancer- Linked Immunosorbent Assay [UBC-ELISA] with urine cytology in the diagnosis of transitional cell cancer of the bladder
Materials and Methods: Voided urine samples were collected from 73 patients with active or history of bladder cancer, prior to cystoscopy at Urmia and Tehran universities urology sections, from March 2004 until March 2005. Ninety-eight volunteers were sampled as controls. Fresh samples were processed and frozen. UBC-ELISA and urine cytology were done during next 3 months period
Results: UBC and cytology sensitivity and specificity were 70%, 97% and 30%, 98% respectively. Positive and negative predictive values were 93%, 86% and 87%, 74% respectively. Accuracy of UBC was 87% as compared with urine cytology, which was 75%. There was no statistically significant relationship between UBC and grade or stage of the tumors [p= 0.11/ p= 0.28]. A statistically significant relationship was demonstrated between urine cytology and grade or stage of the tumors [p= 0.01/ p= 0.001]. Both tests had a statistically significant relationship to the size of the tumor if the cut-off was at 3 centimeters [p= 0.003/ p= 0.006]
Conclusion: Our study shows that the UBC test is much more sensitive than urinary cytology, but the specificity is not very different. Since UBC is less expensive and is an objective test, it can be used instead of urine cytology in the diagnosis and follow-up of transitional cell cancers of the bladder