Alpha-fetoprotein as a differential marker between bladder cancer and Schistosomiasis among Egyptian patients

A.S, Maghraby; Ahmed, Samia A.; Metwally, Ayman M.; H, Khalid

doi:10.21608/ejhm.2008.17653

Alpha-fetoprotein as a differential marker between bladder cancer and Schistosomiasis among Egyptian patients

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Therapeutic Chemistry Department National Research Center, Dokki, Cairo. Infectious Diseases and Immunology group, Center of Excellence for Advanced Studies

² Therapeutic Chemistry Department National Research Center, Dokki, Cairo.

³ Technology of Medical Laboratory Department, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Misr University For Science and Technology, 6th of October, Egyp

⁴ National Cancer Institute, Cairo

10.21608/ejhm.2008.17653

Abstract

Introduction: Schistosomiasis is considered as a widespread problem that affects Egyptians at different ages (WHO, 1993). It is well known that the high incidence of bladder carcinoma in schistosomal patients also represents a great risk to Egyptian society.
Objective: This study represents a survey on the changes which took place in Alpha- Fetoprotein (AFP) levels as a differential marker among Egyptian patients suffering from urinary bilharzial infection and bladder cancer.
Methodology: A partial study was carried out on four post-operative patients and followed up for sixty three days after chemotherapeutic treatment using immunoenzymatic mediated assay.
Results: It was found that bladder cancer leads to obvious significant increase in AFP levels, while schistosomal infection causes a non-significant decrease as compared to healthy control. Although the combination between schistosomal infection and cancer leads to a significant decrease in AFP level compared to non bilharzial cancer cases, there was no significant correlation with healthy cases.
Conclusion: It should be pointed out that the somewhat constant level of AFP in the sera of all patients was due to chemotherapeutic treatment. Also, it can be noticed that there is a significant positive correlation with progress of cancer grades.

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