A clinical study of urine basic fetoprotein and urine polyamine as tumor markers in epithelial cancer of the urinary tract

Background: The reliability of a new screening test for epithelial cancer o f the urinary tract was evaluated and the results were compared with those obtained employing urinary cytology in routine use. Methods: The subjects consisted of 187 cases selected randomly from among t he patients who attended Toho University Ohashi Hospital during a period of 1 year from January 1998. The values for urine basic fetoprotein (BFP) and polyamine and urinary cytology were examined. Results: Urine BFP is considered useful for screening and monitoring urinar y tract epithelial cancer as is urinary cytology. Urine BFP showed a statis tically significant difference (P < 0.05) for G1 compared with urinary cyto logy and a significantly high level compared with urinary cytology as to th e positive rate in the low stage group (P < 0.05). The positive rate of uri ne BFP was high in patients with urinary tract infection. Conclusion: Determining urine BFP, when combined with urinary cytology, is considered very useful for diagnosing patients with urinary tract epithelia l cancer. This study suggests the possibility of urine BFP being superior t o urinary cytology for screening early cancer and also as an indicator for observations on the clinical course.