ARTICLES Detection of Autocrine Motility Factor in Urine as a Marker of Bladder Cancer1

Cell locomotion is an essential requirement for invasion and metastasis of malignant cells. We have previously described the characterization of a 50-kilodalton autocrine motility factor (AMF), a cytokine that stimulates motility in hu-man tumor cells. In this study, we investigated the elabo-ration of this factor in vivo by human bladder carcinoma and in vitro by a cultured transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder cell line T24P. Urine samples from patients with bladder cancer were assayed for their capacity to stim-ulate migration of tumor cells. Comparing all TCC cases (22 patients) with all nonmalignant diagnoses (27 patients), we found a statistically significant (P <.001) difference in the motility values. Invasive TCC cases (15 patients) were significantly (P <.002) higher in regard to motility values compared with noninvasive TCC cases (8 patients), includ