Urinary estrogen metabolites and prostate cancer risk: a pilot study.
BACKGROUND
The high incidence of and few identified risk factors for prostate cancer underscore the need to further evaluate markers of prostate carcinogenesis. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate urinary estrogen metabolites as a biomarker of prostate cancer risk.


METHODS
Using a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method, urinary concentrations of 15 estrogen metabolites were determined in 77 prostate cancer cases, 77 healthy controls, and 37 subjects who had no evidence of prostate cancer after a prostate biopsy.


RESULTS
We observed an inverse association between the urinary 16-ketoestradiol (16-KE2) and 17-epiestriol (17-epiE3)--metabolites with high estrogenic activity--and prostate cancer risk. Men in the lowest quartile of 16-KE2, had a 4.6-fold risk of prostate cancer (OR=4.62, 95% CI=1.34-15.99), compared with those in the highest quartile.


CONCLUSIONS
We observed modest differences in estrogen metabolite concentrations between prostate cancer patients and subjects without cancer. Larger studies with both androgen and estrogen measurements are needed to confirm these results to clarify further whether estrogen metabolites are independent biomarkers for prostate cancer risk and whether androgen/estrogen imbalance influences prostate cancer risk.
Kosti
Ourania
O
Department of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia 20057, USA.
Xu
Xia
X
Veenstra
Timothy D
TD
Hsing
Ann W
AW
Chu
Lisa W
LW
Goldman
Lenka
L
Bebu
Ionut
I
Collins
Sean
S
Dritschilo
Anatoly
A
Lynch
John H
JH
Goldman
Radoslav
R
D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000652:urine*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D004967:Estrogens / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000652:urine*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D004967:Estrogens