[Therapy and follow-up using TPA in radio-oncologic after-care in bladder cancer]

Differentiating between a progressive carcinosis and a clinically tumour-free patient, using the data provided by a tumour-marker, is above all else important for the observation of cancer patients whose primary tumour has been surgically removed. The tumour marker TPA was observed postoperatively in 55 patients with carcinoma of the bladder throughout a period of 12 to 36 months before, during and after radiotherapy and compared to the respective clinical condition. Among these patients all stages T1 to T4 of the TNM-system were represented (19) (Tab. 1). Clinical progress remained stationary in 44 cases, whereby TPA was in 19% (n = 8) of the cases in discordance with clinical progress. In 11 cases (7 local recurrences and 4 distant metastasis) clinical progress was observed to be positive, whereby TPA was concordant in 75% (n = 5) of the local recurrences and in 90% (n = 3) of the distant metastases.