PURPOSE: The ability to reliably diagnose bladder cancer in voided urine samples would be a major advance.
Using high throughput technologies, we identified a panel of bladder cancer associated biomarkers with potential clinical usefulness. In this study we tested 4 potential biomarkers for the noninvasive detection of bladder cancer.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We examined voided urine specimens from 124 patients, including 63 newly diagnosed with bladder cancer and 61 controls. Concentrations of proteins were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, including α1-antitrypsin, apolipoprotein E, osteopontin and pentraxin 3. Data were compared to the results of urinary cytology and the BTA Trak® enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay based bladder cancer detection assay. We used the AUC of ROC curves to compare the usefulness of each biomarker to detect bladder cancer.
RESULTS: Urinary levels of α1-antitrypsin, apolipoprotein E and bladder tumor antigen were significantly increased in subjects with bladder cancer. α1-Antitrypsin (AUC 0.9087, 95% CI 0.8555-0.9619) and apolipoprotein E (AUC 0.8987, 95% CI 0.8449-0.9525) were the most accurate biomarkers. The combination of α1-antitrypsin and apolipoprotein E (AUC 0.9399) achieved 91% sensitivity, 89% specificity, and a positive and negative predictive value of 89% and 90%, respectively. Multivariate regression analysis highlighted only apolipoprotein E as an independent predictor of bladder cancer (OR 24.9, 95% CI 4.22-146.7, p = 0.0004).
CONCLUSIONS: Alone or in combination, α1-antitrypsin and apolipoprotein E show promise for the noninvasive detection of bladder cancer (OR 24.9, 95% CI 4.22-146.7, p = 0.0004). Larger, prospective studies including more low grade, low stage tumors are needed to confirm these results.
Written by:
Urquidi V, Goodison S, Ross S, Chang M, Dai Y, Rosser CJ. Are you the author?
Cancer Research Institute, MD Anderson Cancer Center Orlando, Orlando, Florida 32806, USA.
Reference: J Urol. 2012 Dec;188(6):2377-83.
doi: 10.1016/j.juro.2012.07.094
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 23088986
UroToday.com Investigative Urology Section
