European Urology

Abstract

Objective:

To test the hypothesis that elevated urinary levels of soluble E-cadherin (sE-cadherin) would aid in the detection of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the urinary bladder.

Methods:

We performed sE-cadherin staining of one murine (MBT2) and four human (RT4, 5637, T24, and TCCSUP) bladder cancer cell lines. sE-cadherin levels were also determined in voided urine of 188 consecutive subjects at risk for TCC recurrence, 31 patients with other uro-pathologic conditions, and 10 healthy subjects using a commercially-available ELISA kit. sE-cadherin was analyzed continuously and categorically on the basis of its median distribution.

Results:

Moderately and poorly differentiated bladder cancer cell lines had decreased cellular E-cadherin expression, whereas RT4, a well differentiated cell line, had preserved expression. All cell lines had measurable sE-cadherin levels in their conditioned media. The area under the ROC curve of sE-cadherin for the detection of TCC was 0.719 (95%CI, 0.637–0.801; p < 0.001). Higher levels of sE-cadherin were associated with positive cytology results (p = 0.012) and muscle invasive tumor stage (p = 0.009). Urinary sE-cadherin was more sensitive, but less specific than urinary cytology for the detection of bladder TCC. In a multivariable logistic regression analysis, higher sE-cadherin and positive cytology were both associated with an increased risk of bladder TCC (p = 0.048 and p < 0.001, respectively). Combination of cytology and sE-cadherin allowed categorization of patients into three significantly different risk groups for bladder cancer. Adjustment of sE-cadherin for urinary creatinine levels did not affect any of the outcomes.

Conclusions:

Urinary level of sE-cadherin may add information to cytology in the detection of bladder TCC.