Urine tumour associated trypsin inhibitor (TATI) in diagnosis and prognosis of transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder
Abstract
Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the utility of TATI level in urine as a non-invasive method for detecting urinary bladder cancer and evaluating its prognosis. Materials and Methods: Sixty three patients were enrolled in the study (38 men, 25 women), with a mean age of 66.2 years, and an average follow-up time of 23 months.
Patients were divided into groups according to tumour grade, stage, number of lesions, and their size. Thirty three patients with benign urological disease were included as controls.
Results: The median TATI level in the group patients with tumours was 68.65 μg/l. In the control group it was 20.38 μg/l.
The mean TATI level was 15.76 μg/l in the G1 group, 86.3 μg/l in G2 group, and 33.3 μg/l in G3 group. The mean TATI level in patients with a TaT1 tumour was 73.3 μg/l, and 40.51 μg/l in patients with an invasive carcinoma.
The TATI level in solitary tumours was 60.28 μg/l, 94.42 μg/l in multiple tumours, 26.3 μg/l in tumours up to 3 cm, and 100.02 μg/l in larger tumours. The mean TATI level in the group of patients with bladder tumour recurrence during followup was 60.3 μg/l, 75.0 μg/l without recurrence, 12.0 μg/l in patients who progressed, and 55.7 μg/l in patients who did not progress.
Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that the level of TATI in the urine does not correlate with the risk of bladder tumour, tumour size, multiplicity or the grade, and recurrence free survival.