Comparative evaluation of the bladder tumor-associated antigen, urinary bladder cancer antigen, tissue polypeptide specific antigen and voided urine cytology in early detection of primary bladder tumors

Abstract

Although a large number of biomarkers for primary assessment of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) have been explored, their real diagnostic performance is not well known. This study aimed to conduct a direct comparison of three biomarkers [bladder tumor-associated antigen (BTA), urinary bladder cancer antigen (UBC) and tissue polypeptide specific antigen (TPS)] with some unique characteristics for detection of NMIBC and to compare their diagnostic accuracy to that of routine urine cytology. Our results indicated that the overall clinical sensitivity of BTA was the highest of all assays (76.92%), whereas that of cytology was the smallest one (12.50%). On the other hand, BTA and cytology had the highest specificities (89.79% vs. 96.87%) with no significant differences between them. A multi-biomarker panel including BTA, UBC, and TPS with an overall clinical specificity of 100% better assess the primary NMIBC as compared to approaches entailing just one or two of these biomarkers or routine urine cytology.