Preliminary results on the use of the humoral immune response as a serum marker in patients with bladder tumors.

An immunoassay using a human bladder tumor tissue culture cell line (J-82) as antigen and a modified avidin-biotin-complex (ABC) method were used to examine human serum samples. Optical density (OD) of 26 serum samples obtained from 19 patients with bladder tumors had a mean OD of 458 +/- 71 SD (328-570). This is significantly higher (p less than 0.0005) when compared to the mean OD of 172 +/- 49 SD (107-301) found in serum samples from 28 patients with tumors other than bladder cancer and to the mean OD of 207 +/- 48 SD (136-310) of serum samples from 25 healthy donors. Thirty-one serum samples from 21 patients who had a bladder tumor surgically removed 1 to 36 months before were, with 2 exceptions, also higher than 320 (mean 412 [248-550]). All serum samples of patients with presence of a bladder tumor above the cut-off point of 320 and those from the 2 control groups below it shows, thus far, a high sensitivity as well as specificity of the method used and encourages further assessment of its potential usefulness as a serum marker assay in patients with bladder cancer.