title: Urine Cell-Free DNA Integrity Analysis for Early Detection of Prostate Cancer Patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The detection of tumor-specific markers in urine has paved the way for new early noninvasive diagnostic approaches for prostate cancer. We evaluated the DNA integrity in urine supernatant to verify its capacity to discriminate between prostate cancer and benign diseases of the urogenital tract.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 131 individuals were enrolled: 67 prostate cancer patients and 64 patients with benign diseases of the urogenital tract (control group). Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels were determined. Urine cell-free (UCF) DNA was isolated and sequences longer than 250 bp corresponding to 3 genes (c-MYC, HER2, and AR) were quantified by Real-Time PCR to assess UCF-DNA integrity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  UCF-DNA was quantifiable in all samples, while UCF-DNA integrity was evaluable in all but 16 samples. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed an area under the curve of 0.5048 for UCF-DNA integrity and 0.8423 for PSA. Sensitivity was 0.58 and 0.95 for UCF-DNA integrity and PSA, respectively. Specificity was 0.44 and 0.69, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  UCF-DNA integrity showed lower accuracy than PSA and would not seem to be a reliable marker for early prostate cancer diagnosis. Despite this, we believe that UCF-DNA could represent a source of other biomarkers and could detect gene alterations.
authors.affiliation: Biosciences Laboratory, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), IRCCS, Via P. Maroncelli 40, 47014 Meldola, Italy.
authors.forename: Samanta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Salvi
authors.affiliation: Biosciences Laboratory, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), IRCCS, Via P. Maroncelli 40, 47014 Meldola, Italy.
authors.forename: Giorgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gurioli
authors.affiliation: Biosciences Laboratory, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), IRCCS, Via P. Maroncelli 40, 47014 Meldola, Italy.
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martignano
authors.affiliation: Unit of Biostatistics and Clinical Trials, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), IRCCS, 47014 Meldola, Italy.
authors.forename: Flavia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Foca
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Morgagni Pierantoni Hospital, 47121 Forlì, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gunelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Bufalini Hospital, 47521 Cesena, Italy.
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cicchetti
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), IRCCS, 47014 Meldola, Italy.
authors.forename: Ugo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: De Giorgi
authors.affiliation: Biosciences Laboratory, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), IRCCS, Via P. Maroncelli 40, 47014 Meldola, Italy.
authors.forename: Wainer
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zoli
authors.affiliation: Biosciences Laboratory, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), IRCCS, Via P. Maroncelli 40, 47014 Meldola, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Calistri
authors.affiliation: Biosciences Laboratory, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), IRCCS, Via P. Maroncelli 40, 47014 Meldola, Italy.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Casadio
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000737:chemistry / Q000652:urine*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000652:urine*; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000652:urine*; D016271:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc / Q000235:genetics; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics; D011944:Receptors, Androgen / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D004247:DNA; D016271:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011944:Receptors, Androgen; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human