Washington D.C. [USA], Feb 29 : Researchers have made considerable advancement towards the development of a simple, noninvasive liquid biopsy test that detects prostate cancer from RNA and other specific metabolic chemicals in the urine.
The study was published in the journal of Scientific Reports.
The investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have emphasised that this is a proof-of-principle study for the urine test, and it must be validated in additional, larger studies before it is ready for clinical use.
The researchers used RNA deep-sequencing and mass spectrometry to identify a previously unknown profile of RNAs and dietary byproducts, known as metabolites, among 126 patients and healthy, normal people.
The cohort included 64 patients with prostate cancer, 31 with benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostatitis diseases, and 31 healthy people with none of these conditions.
RNA alone was not sufficient to positively identify cancer, but the addition of a group of disease-specific metabolites provided separation of cancer from other diseases and healthy people.
"A simple and noninvasive urine test for prostate cancer would be a significant step forward in diagnosis. Tissue biopsies are invasive and notoriously difficult because they often miss cancer cells, and existing tests, such as PSA (prostate-specific antigen) elevation, are not very helpful in identifying cancer," said Ranjan Perera, PhD, the study's senior author.
"We discovered cancer-specific changes in urinary RNAs and metabolites that -- if confirmed in a larger, separate group of patients -- will allow us to develop a urinary test for prostate cancer in the future," said Bongyong Lee, PhD, the study's first author and a senior scientist at the Cancer & Blood Disorders Institute.