[Serum concentration of laminin in transitional cell carcinoma]

The concentration of laminin in the serum was determined for 45 patients with urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma, and the clinical significance of the findings was considered. The difference between the serum laminin concentrations in the control group and the transitional cell carcinoma patient group was not statistically significant, but the serum laminin level was highest in the transitional cell carcinoma patients with metastatic foci. In many of the patients who had metastatic foci and showed clearly progressive disease, the serum laminin concentration was found to increase with the passage of time. When the transitional cell carcinoma tissues were stained by the fluorescent antibody technique, there was little distribution of laminin in the tumor tissues, contrary to our earlier-reported findings regarding the staining of laminin in renal cell carcinoma tissues. In renal cell carcinoma patients, the serum concentration of laminin had been found to be high even when there were no metastatic foci, and consideration of this fact strongly suggests the possibility that the mechanism for laminin synthesis in urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma is different from that in renal cell carcinoma. It was surmised that the serum laminin concentration has potential for use as a diagnostic indicator of metastasis in patients with urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma.