OBJECTIVE: To investigate the practicability of survivin detection in urine as a 
novel diagnostic method and prognostic molecular marker of bladder cancer.
METHODS: Nested RT-PCR was used to detect survivin mRNA expression in urine 
specimens from 20 healthy persons and patients with bladder carcinomas (n=30), 
prostate cancer (n=10), and renal cancer (n=6).
RESULTS: The result show that survivin was not detected in the urine samples of 
six of 30 patients with bladder cancer, whereas all the results were negative 
the other 36 persons. The positive rates of survivin and their expression levels 
increased with the tumors' histological grade. Six of 21 new-onset bladder 
tumors did not present survivin mRNA expression; however, none of the nine 
recurrent bladder tumors were negative, and patients with new-onset bladder 
tumors (0.5973+/-0.1968) had significantly lower survivin levels than those with 
recurrent ones (1.1627+/-0.1341)( P=2.10228E-05). We also found that survivin 
expression was not correlated with gender, age, and clinical stage.
CONCLUSION: The high sensitivity and specificity of urine survivin can indicate 
the occurrence of bladder carcinomas, and its expression level might be 
correlated with the malignancy and prognosis of bladder carcinomas. In addition, 
the fact that survivin was only detected in urine samples of patients with 
bladder cancer, rather than in normal adult tissue (except thymus gland), 
suggests that survivin can be used as an ideal target in bladder carcinoma 
treatment.