title: [Urinary BLCA-4 level is useful to detect upper urinary tract urothelial cell carcinoma].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Upper urinary tract urothelial cell carcinomas (UUT-UCCs) are rare but usually invasive at diagnosis. Early diagnosis of UUT-UCCs is thus warranted. UUT has the same embryological origin with bladder and BLCA-4 is a highly sensitive and specific marker for bladder cancer. We intend to investigate the viability of BLCA-4 in detecting UUT-UCCs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Urines from 30 UUT-UCC patients, 10 ureteral polyp patients, 20 infected patients with incarcerated ureteral stones, and 30 normal controls were included. BLCA-4 antibody was produced and applied in an indirect ELISA assay.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Urinary BLCA-4 is significantly higher in UUT-UCC group than «Polyp» group (P=0.0017), «Infection» group (P<0.0001), or « Normal» group (P<0.0001). The «Polyp» group is also higher than «Infection» group (P=0.015), or «Normal» group (P=0.0009). ROC curve revealed at cut-off of 5.5×10(-4)A, sensitivity was 93.3% and specificity was 100%. When grouped as ureteral mass vs normal, same cut-off value yielded 93.3% sensitivity and 83.3% specificity. At 2.4×10(-4)A, sensitivity was 56.7% and specificity was 97.2%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Urinary BLCA-4 is also highly specific in UUT-UCCs detection. For incidentally identified ureteral mass, BLCA-4 can be considered an auxiliary indicator besides biopsy.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Urología, Hospital Huashan, Universidad Fudan, Shanghai, China. dingqiangd@hotmail.com
authors.forename: C-C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: H-W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ding
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000652:urine*; D002295:Carcinoma, Transitional Cell / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000652:urine*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000652:urine*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D034521:Nuclear Matrix-Associated Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000652:urine*; D014516:Ureteral Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000652:urine*; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D034521:Nuclear Matrix-Associated Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; C413062:BLCA-4 protein, human; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins