Diagnostic Value of Serum and Urine Endocan Levels in Nonmuscle Invasive Bladder Cancer: A Prospective Comparative Study

Objective. This prospective study aimed to explore the potential diagnostic value of endocan levels in bladder cancer by investigating a possible association of serum and urine endocan levels with the stage and grade of bladder tumors in patients with nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) in terms of risk stratification. Materials and Methods. Participants included 66 male patients with NMIBC. Patients with full pathology results, NMIBC stage T1, and healthy controls were categorized as groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Patients were further classified into high- and low-grade groups following their pathology results. Risk classification according to the European Association of Urology (EAU) was assigned to patients with NMIBC, and associations of risk groups with serum and urine endocan levels were analyzed. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to identify serum and urine endocan concentrations. Results. Serum endocan levels according to pathological staging were significantly higher in groups 1 and 2 than in group 3. The urine endocan level was statistically significantly higher in group 2 than in group 3 p<0.001. The predictive power of the urine endocan level was evaluated for its ability to predict T1 disease, revealing an area under the curve of 0.735 and a threshold of 903. The EAU classification was evaluated according to risk groups, and the urine endpoint was statistically significantly higher in the univariate analysis for the high and very high-risk groups p=0.034. Conclusion. Our results indicate that endocan levels hold significant promise in prognostic feature evaluation in NMIBC, particularly in the context of screening patients with hematuria.