TPA prognostic value in superficial bladder cancer.

We determined the levels of TPA in 133 patients with superficial bladder cancer. 79 cases were Ta stages, and 54 cases T1 stages. 53 of the tumors were well differentiated (I), 65 moderately differentiated (II) and 15 undifferentiated (III). The average follow-up time of these patients was 8.3 months; the standard deviation being 5.2 months (median value 7 months). In 43 cases a relapse of the tumor was observed. We detected high TPA levels in 25% of the patients, without observing meaningful differences in tumor invasion or in its differentiation degree. The usefulness of the TPA, the degree of tumor invasion, and the degree of cell differentiation were evaluated by means of single-variate and multivariate analysis in order to forecast tumor relapse. Only the TPA had a prognostic value, the relative risk of developing relapse being 2.03 times higher in patients with high TPA than patients with normal TPA.