Expression of C‐50 Antigen as a Prognostic Variable in Transitional Cell Bladder Tumours

The immunohistochemical expression of C-50 antigen was quantitated in paraffin-embedded biopsy specimens of 218 transitional cell bladder tumours. The patients were treated according to standard practice in one institution and followed up for over 10 years. The expression of C-50 antigen was inversely correlated to T category, papillary status and WHO grade. Aneuploid tumours with a high S phase fraction (SPF) showed low expression of C-50 antigen. Progression in T, N and M categories was inversely correlated to CA-50 expression. Low expression of C-50 antigen predicted progression in Ta-T1 tumours. Expression of C-50 antigen was related to a favourable prognosis in the whole series, in papillary tumours, in diploid tumours, in WHO grade 2 tumours and in Ta-T1 tumours. The combination of DNA ploidy and expression of C-50 antigen was a highly significant predictor of survival. In Cox's analysis, expression of CA-50 had an independent predictive value in Ta-T1 tumours, whereas in the whole cohort the T category and papillarity were independent predictors.