Immune Complexes in Urine and Serum of Patients with Bladder Cancer

Abstract

The urine and/or serum of 43 patients with bladder cancer was tested for the presence of immune complexes. Immune complexes were present more frequently in the urine (38 per cent) than in the serum (23 per cent). Urinary immune complexes were elevated in 10 per cent of the patients with no tumor (group 1), 25 per cent with superficial neoplasms (group 2) and 89 per cent with infiltrating or metastatic disease (group 3), which compared favorably to elevated serum immune complexes in 20, 25 and 33 per cent of the patients, respectively. The incidence of urinary immune complexes was statistically significant when compared in patients with and without active tumors (p less than 0.03), and when group 3 patients were compared to those in group 1 or 2 (p less than 0.01 and p less than 0.03, respectively). Unlike serum immune complexes urinary immune complexes appeared to correlate with the presence and stage of bladder cancer.