SENSITIVITY AND SPECIFICITY OF URINARY BLADDER CANCER ANTIGEN FOR DIAGNOSIS OF BLADDER TUMOR; A COMPARATIVE STUDY WITH URINARY CYTOLOGY

Cystoscopy and urinary cytology are currently the basis for diagnosis and follow-up ofbladder tulnors. research to find a sensitive and specific tunlor tilarker for diagnosis of bladder tunlor isactively underway, however, due to low sensitivity and high cost of cytology. this cross-sectional studywas performed in 65 patients to evaluate vhether urinary bladder cancer (ljbc) antigen level canpredict the presence of active bladder tumor. in patients with inactive tumor, lfbc antigen level wasdetennined in addition to standard cystoscopy and cytology for follow-up. patients with active tumorwere subjected to standard treatment and lfbc antigen level determination. ljbc antigen levels weremeasured by elisa, using nl0noclonal antibodies specific for ubc antigen. as a control group, ubcantigen level was also detennined in 65 persons who had been referred for urinalysis for other reasons.ubc antigen level more than 1 j.lg/l which was regarded as positive was found in 49.4~) of thepatients. in control group, 96.9°~ had ubc antigen < 1j.lg/l. mean ubc antigen level in patients was3.77 j.lg/l while it was 0.508 j.lg/l in controls (p < 0.0001). sensitivity of ubc antigen was 53.3~/o andits specificity was 40°a>. sensitivity and specificity of urinary cytology was 17 .3~/o and 88.20/0,respectively. this difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001). ubc antigen is 1110re sensitivethan urinary cytology, although cytology still retains its priority in specificity. it is not yetrecommended to replace ljbc antigen for cytology due to its low specificity and not favorable sensitivity