Immunohistochemical Study of Carcinoembryonic Antigen on the Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Bladder

Choo, Myung Soo; Kim, Young Kyoon

Abstract

Immunoperoxidase method was used to study carcinoembryonic antigen in tissue sections of 75 patients with transitional cell carcinoma, inflammation and normal mucosa of the bladder. Transitional cell carcinomas were divided into 3 grades by the degree of cellular differentiation and 4 groups (A: superficial tumors without recurrence, B: superficial tumors with recurrence, C: superficial tumors with recurrence and up-staging and D: initially invasive tumors) according to recurrence and invasiveness. Overall positive rate of CEA for transitional cell carcinomas was 38% and 5 normal and 5 inflammatory vesical mucosas were negative for CEA in the cytoplasm of the cell. The positive rates of A, B, C and D were 25%, 57%, 30% and 50%, respectively and those of grade I, II and III were l9%, 34 % and 73%, respectively. The positive rate of CEA was well correlated with the grade but not with the recurrence or invasiveness. These conflicting data suggest that further extensive study will be necessary whether immunoperoxidase detection of CEA in tissue sections could be of prognostic value in patients with transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder.