Detection of urine survivin in 40 patients with bladder cancer

Abstract

Purpose: We investigated whether urine survivin, an inhibitor of the apoptosis protein, is useful for diagnosing bladder tumor. Method: We measured urine survivin levels in 40 patients with bladder tumors and 9 healthy volunteers. Results: The average urine survivin levels in the 40 patients and 9 healthy controls were not significantly different (3.802 ± 8.669 and 1.127 ± 1.529, respectively (p = 0.3646)). However, significantly high urine survivin levels were observed in 3 of the 40 patients, but not in healthy volunteers. Urine Cyfra 21-1 was not elevated (1.3 ng/ml) in one patient with a significantly elevated urine survivin level (33.54 ng/ml), while in two patients with elevated Cyfra (320 ng/ ml and 240 ng/ml), the urine survivin level was not detectable. Conclusion: With improvements in the sensitivity of our Elisa system for urine survivin and combined use of urine Cyfra 21-1, it is possible that urine survivin will be a useful tumor marker in detecting both new-onset and recurrent bladder tumors.