Immunohistochemical study of the proliferating ability and malignant potential of transitional cell carcinoma in the human urinary bladder.

Actively dividing cells produce a number of proteins that may serve as useful antigenic markers in immunological studies of cellular proliferation and malignant potential. We investigated the expression of PCNA, p53 and c-a erbB-2 proteins in transitional cell carcinoma of human urinary bladder using an immunohistochemical method, and compared the results with the histologic grades and stages. Immunohistochemical studies on these proteins using monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies were performed with formalin-fixed paraffin sections of tumor tissue from 40 patients with bladder cancer. Generally, higher-grade and higher-stage tumors expressed PCNA and p53 and c-erbB-2 proteins with greater frequency than tumors of a lower grade or lower stage. These results suggest that the detection of each antigen might be useful in estimating the malignant potential of transitional cell carcinoma as an adjuvant study, because of its applicability to paraffin-embedded tissue sections and its simple, rapid technique.