1980 Volume 71 Issue 4 Pages 383-390
Serum ferritin was determined in patients with urologic cancer and the relation with other clinical indicator serum CEA and iron was studied. The stability of 2-site immunoradiometric assay for serum ferritin was also studied by recovery test, dilution test and reproducibility.
The recovery ratio was excellent, 93% on the average. Commercial control serum NMS-IIa of 306ng/ml and a stock serum (serum from renal cell carcinoma) of 1808ng/ml were diluted. The NMS-IIa showed an excellent dilution pattern. However, in the stock serum, the dilution curve revealed so-called “high dose hook effect”. The reproducibility was excellent, CV% in test serum and in NMS-II were 9% and 3% respectively.
Determination of serum ferritin was performed in 113 patients with various kinds of urologic diseases and 20 cases of normal control. The average of serum ferritin level from male control was 114±43ng/ml (n=10) and from female control was 57±39ng/ml (n=10). By this method, the normal range was considered to be below 200ng/ml in man.
Mean values of serum ferritin were 399±662ng/ml (n=35) in renal cell carcinomas, 166±217ng/(n=13) in bladder tumors, 242±313ng/ml (n=33) in prostatic carcinomas and 706±771ng/ml (n=5) in testicular tumors. The incidence of positive cases of serum ferritin was 54% in renal cell carcinomas, 24% in prostatic carcinomas and 60% in testicular tumors.
In renal cell carcinomas, a fair correlation was shown between the serum ferritin values and the clinical stage. By the surgery for renal cell carcinoma, the serum ferritin levels were decreased in stage 1-2, and they were not changed in high stage. However, serum ferritin values were not correlated with serum iron levels.
Values of ferritin and CEA in sera were poorly correlated (r=0.34).
In conclusion, the serum ferritin levels were valuable as an effective diagnostic indicator of urologic cancer, especially in renal cell carcinomas and testicular choriocarcinomas.
