Clinical Follow Up of Infiltrating Bladder Cancer with Special Reference to Tumour Markers.

The presence of a neoplasm is generally accompanied by the production of substances which are not found in normal subjects or are only produced to a negligible extent. This long- established concept has only recently taken on maior clinical importance, with the appearance of specific and sensitive methods able to detect even very slight amounts of such substances, known as “tumour markers”. The ideal characteristics of tumour markers should include absolute specificity for the tumor, and hence the absence of the marker itself in healthy subjects or those affected by other diseases; detectability even in the very earliest stages of the neoplastic process (sensitivity) and proportionality between blood levels and tumour mass (6, 8, 25).