Abstract
Although the glycoprotein group tumor marker CA 19-9 has been detected in both serum and urine of bladder cancer patients, information about their comparative role in screening of low grade transitional cell carcinoma (LGTCC) and high grade transitional cell carcinoma (HGTCC) is rare. In this study we measured both the urinary and serum levels of CA 19-9 in 35 LGTCC and 20 HGTCC patients by ELISA and determined the cut off value of both urinary and serum CA 19-9 levels by receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) for both patient groups. Odds ratio (OR) for CA 19-9 was analyzed with its range at 95% confidence interval to analyze the role of this tumor marker as a screening parameter for both of these cancer types. For urinary CA 19-9 the OR was 20.16 with an interval of 4.91-82.71 whereas for the serum CA 19-9 it was 7.5 with an interval of 2.28-24.62. From these data we suggest that urinary CA 19-9 is a better screening parameter with optimum sensitivity and specificity than its serum counterpart for diagnosis of low grade and early stages of transitional cell carcinoma of urinary bladder. Furthermore, it can be suggested that urinary CA 19-9 can be used as better prognostic marker for LGTCC than its serum counterpart.
Highlights
Tumor markers are biochemical substances elaborated by tumor cells either due to the cause or effect of malignant process
The range of Odds ratio (OR) is above 1 that suggests that urinary level of CA19-9 in low grade transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) patients is highly significant than observed in high grade cases
In this study an attempt was made to assess the role of CA19-9 as a tumor marker in urine and serum of patients of histopathologically confirmed bladder cancer
Summary
Tumor markers are biochemical substances elaborated by tumor cells either due to the cause or effect of malignant process. These markers can be normal endogenous products that are produced at a greater rate in cancer cells or the products of newly switched on genes that remained quiescent in the normal cells. They may be present as intracellular substances in tissues or may be released into the circulation and appear in serum. The urothelium in the entire urinary tract may be involved, including the renal pelvis, ureter, bladder, and urethra
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