Abstract

Early diagnosis is essential to establish long term survival with curative surgical treatment in renal tumours.  Plenty of tumour markers have been evaluated for early detection but a tumour marker spesific to renal cell cancer (RCC) has not been discovered yet. Urinary NMP test results of radical nephrectomy planned patients due to renal mass were evaluated in this study.

Material and methods: Of the total 55 patients included in our study, 27 (RCC group) were candidate for radical nephrectomy due to solid renal mass on computerized tomography (CT) and 28 (control group) had no known solid renal mass on CT/ abdominopelvic ultrasound (USG). Urinary NMP22 test was applied to all patients.

Results: In RCC group, renal mass diameter was 7 cm in %25.9 of the patients (n=7). %3.7 of the patients (n=1) had positive urinary NMP22 test. In the control group, %3.6 of the patients (n=1) had positive urinary NMP22 test.

There was not any statistically significant difference between the groups regarding to urinary NMP22 test positivity.

Conclusions: Our results showed that urinary NMP22 test was not  useful as a marker for patients with RCC.

Key Words: Renal cell carcinoma, Nuclear matrix, Tumor markers.