RESUMEN
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the roles of cell adhesion, multidrug resistance and cell proliferation in short-term recurrent cases with superficial bladder cancer, and the prognostic value of the three indexes.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Immunohistochemical staining for E-cad, P-gp and Ki-67 was performed on the tumors of 100 patients with stage T0-T1 transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder who had been included in a retrospective research by follow-up.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>E-cad and P-gp expression was positive in 51 (43.2%)and 17 (14.4%) of the tumors, respectively and mean proliferation index (PI) was 22.1%. The decrease in E-cad expression was accompanied with the increasing recurrent episodes (P < 0.05), while increase of P-gp expression and PI were accompanied with the increasing recurrence episodes (P < 0.05). There was significant difference according to E-cad, P-gp positivity and between T(1)G(3) patients and no-T(1)G(3) patients (P < 0.05). There was negative correlation of E-cad expression with P-gp expression and PI.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Minimum adhesion, strong drug resistance and maximum proliferation are the main factors that promote short-term recurrence of superficial bladder cancer and also the inherent reasons for easy recurrence and high malignancy of T(1)G(3) tumors. During this course, the three aspects may interact.</p>