R. Von Knobloch et al., Serum DNA and urine DNA alterations of urinary transitional cell bladder carcinoma detected by fluorescent microsatellite analysis, INT J CANC, 94(1), 2001, pp. 67-72
There are no reliable serologic tumor markers for transitional cell carcino
ma (TCC) of the urinary bladder and noninvasive urine investigations are in
adequate. We used fluorescent microsatellite analysis (MSA) to detect serum
DNA and urine-sediment DNA alterations in patients with bladder cancer and
prospectively collected fresh tumor, peripheral blood, serum and spontaneo
us urine specimens from 39 consecutive patients treated for TCC of the blad
der to obtain the corresponding DNA. Fluorescent MSA was performed with 17
polymorphic markers from the chromosomal regions 5q, 8p, 9p, 9q, 13q, 14q,
17p, 17q and 20q in the 39 cancer patients and in 10 healthy controls. Seru
m DNA alterations were identified in 84.5% (33 of 39 patients) and tumor-sp
ecific urine DNA alterations indicating the diagnosis were present in 72% (
27 of 39 patients) of cases. None of the healthy controls displayed serum D
NA alterations. The highest frequency of serum DNA aberrations (56%) was de
tected for chromosomal region 8p. The most frequent alterations in urine-se
diment DNA, 36% and 26%, were detected in chromosomal regions 8p and 9p, re
spectively. Identification of Serum DNA and urine-sediment DNA alterations
was not related to stage of disease or grade of tumor (p > 0.05). Thus, MSA
offers a highly sensitive and specific method for serum- and urine-bound d
iagnosis of bladder TCC. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.