Ischemia Modified Albumin Levels and Oxidative Stress in Patients with Bladder Cancer

Background: Impaired oxidative/antioxidative status plays an important role in the pathogenesis of many diseases like cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the levels of the novel marker ischemia modified albumin (IMA) and albumin adjusted-IMA (Adj-IMA) in patients with bladder cancer (BC) as well as its association with total antioxidant status (TAS), total oxidant status (TOS) and oxidative stress index (OSI). Materials and Methods: Forty male patients with BC (mean age, 67.4 +/- 12years) and forty age-sex matched healthy persons (mean age 56.0 +/- 1.7 years) were included in this study. Serum levels of IMA, TAS, TOS were analyzed and Adj-IMA and OSI was calculated. Results: Serum IMA, TOS and OSI values were significantly higher in patients with BC compared to controls (p<0.0001, p=0.01 and p=0.01, respectively), whereas TAS was significantly lower in BC patients (p=0.04). There was no significant difference for serum albumin-adjusted IMA levels between groups (p=0.4). Conclusions: In this study, it was found that there was an impaired oxidative/antioxidant status in favor of oxidative stress in BC patients. This observation was not confirmed by Adj-IMA calculation. There is no published report about serum concentrations of IMA in patients with BC. Further studies are needed to establish the relationship of IMA and oxidative stress parameters in BC and the significance of IMA to other cancers.