HBEGF and urinary bladder carcinoma: As shown in Figure 2, the concentration of urine HB-EGF was significantly lower in the 38 IC patients with Hunner's ulcers (1.19 ± 0.20 ng/ml) and in the 26 IC patients without Hunner's ulcers (1.42 ± 0.23 ng/ml) as compared to normal controls (9.28 ± 1.04 ng/ml) or patients with bacterial cystitis or bladder cancer (5.34 ± 1.19 ng/ml, and 5.72 ± 0.87 ng/ml, p < 0.0001 for comparison of each IC group to each control group).