1983 Volume 74 Issue 3 Pages 293-298
Urine ferritin, urine cytology, urine fibrin/fibrinogen degradation products (FDP) and urine carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) were investigated in 6 patients with renal pelvic and ureteral cancer, 36 with bladder cancer, 14 with prostatic cancer and 49 after operation for urologic malignancies.
The results were as follows:
1) Urine ferritin levels in the poorly differentiated and advanced stage group were significantly higher than those in the well differentiated and early stage group.
2) Urine ferritin as a tumor marker was not suitable because of lower diagnostic accuracy compared with urine cytology, urine FDP and urine CEA.
3) No significant correlation between serum ferritin and urine ferritin was noted (r=0.269) in prostatic cancer patients. No significant elevation of serum ferritin was noted by radiation therapy, while significant elevation of urine ferritin was noted in all cases. It was considered that urine ferritin did not reflect increment of serum ferritin and the source of urine ferritin in prostatic cancer was secretion from cancer and destruction of tissue by radiation.
4) Urine ferritin level was increased remarkably in most cases of renal pelvic and ureteral cancer, and this result suggested that destruction of renal tubular cells might play some part in pathogenesis of elevation of urine ferritin.
