High Expression Level of Preoperative Serum Uroplakin III is Associated with Biologically Aggressive Bladder Cancer.

Background: Uroplakins have been widely investigated as potential markers in patients with bladder cancerbecause these proteins are specific to the urothelium. However, the role of uroplakin proteins in bladder cancerremains unknown. In this study, preoperative serum levels of uroplakin III were measured in patients withurothelial carcinoma of the urinary bladder and examined for possible association with clinicopathologicalfeatures and clinical outcomes. Materials and
Methods: This study included 52 bladder cancer patients at variousstages and 28 healthy controls. Uroplakin III levels were detected in preoperative sera using an automated dotblot system and a micro-dot blot array.
Results: There was a significant increase in serum uroplakin III levels inpatients with bladder cancer as compared to healthy controls (p<0.05). In addition, serum uroplakin III levelswere associated with muscle-invasive status, high grade and lymphovascular invasion (p<0.02). Log-rank testsindicated high serum uroplakin III to be significantly associated with cancer-specific mortality.
Conclusions:Determination of serum uroplakin III level could be valuable for identifying patients with biologically aggressivebladder cancer.