[Blood and urine determinations of tissue polypeptide antigen in patients with bladder carcinoma]

The Tissue Polypeptide Antigen (TPA) is an oncofetal antigen widely used in the diagnosis and follow-up of several urothelial cancers. Its urinary and serum detection is performed by means of RIA technique. We determined urinary and serum TPA in 30 patients with bladder cancer who underwent a transurethral resection. Ten out of 30 patients were correctly diagnosed by serum TPA, 22 by urinary TPA. The ANOVA test showed a statistically significant correlation between grade and urinary TPA between stage and serum TPA. Urinary TPA showed a good sensibility in low grade and moreover in Ta stage carcinoma. Serum TPA increased its performance with higher grade carcinoma and in presence of a muscle infiltration, but it never reached a sufficient sensibility to be considered a bladder cancer marker. In conclusion the simultaneous determination of urinary and serum TPA does not give more information than the urinary determination alone.