The CancerWeb Report, What's New In Cancer: September, 1996
Bladder Cancer

• Bladder cancer among chemical plant workers - In April 1991, a report was published which described an excess of bladder cancer among workers in the rubber manufacturing area at a Niagara Falls, New York, chemical plant. A follow-up to this study appeared in the August 7, 1996 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. It described the results of analyses for several suspect organic compounds in the urine of the workers and in air samples from their work area, as well as measurements of the products of the reaction of these compounds with the hemoglobin in the workers' blood. While air concentrations of aniline and ortho-toluidine were well within OSHA limits, levels of these two compounds were much higher in the urine of exposed than of unexposed workers. This was especially true of ortho-toluidine, levels of which were raised 35-fold. The amounts of reaction products of hemoglobin with aniline and ortho-toluidine were also increased (5- and 12-fold, respectively). However, there was no evidence of excess of another suspect chemical 4-aminobiphenyl. The results strongly suggest that the increased incidence of bladder cancer resulted primarily from exposure to ortho-toluidine. (Ward, JNCI 88:1046, 1996)

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• A test for predicting recurrence of bladder cancer. - An article by a group of Scottish researchers in the August, 1996 issue of the British Journal of Cancer described increased levels of a substance called soluble E-cadherin in the serum of patients with bladder cancer. Soluble E-cadherin is a special form of a normal substance that is known as a cell adhesion molecule. This soluble form may be important in the ability of the tumor cells to spread in the normal bladder epithelium. It has been found also in serum from patients with stomach and liver cancers. The authors consider the appearance of soluble E-cadherin as a useful indicator of recurrence of treated bladder cancer, rather than for initial diagnosis. (Griffiths, Brit J Cancer 74:579, 1996)

  Editor's Comment: - It is interesting that another article, in the September 15, 1996 issue of Cancer Research (Shimazui, Cancer Res 56:4154, 1996), describes reduced amounts of the normal E-cadherin, and of the related catenin molecules that link up with cadherin, in specimens of bladder cancers from patients with poor prognosis. Possibly the loss of the normal molecules is associated with appearance of abnormal soluble E-cadherin. We might be looking at two sides of the same coin here. These adhesion molecules are factors in keeping normal tissues together, and their loss enables cancer cells to detach from the tumor/tissue mass, and to invade and metastasize.