Urinary Polyamines: A Pilot Study on Their Roles as Prostate Cancer Detection Biomarkers.
Current screening methods towards prostate cancer (PCa) are not without limitations. Research work has been on-going to assess if there are other better tests suitable for primary or secondary screening of PCa to supplement the serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, which fails to work accurately in a grey zone of 4-10ng/ml. In this pilot study, the potential roles of urinary polyamines as prostate cancer biomarkers were evaluated. PCa, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients and healthy controls (HC) showing PSA>4.0ng/ml were enrolled in the study. Their urine samples were obtained, and the urinary levels of putrescine (Put), spermidine (Spd) and spermine (Spm) were determined by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (UPLC-MS/MS). Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve and Student's t-test were used to evaluate their diagnostic accuracies. Among the three biogenic polyamines, Spm had demonstrated a good diagnostic performance when comparing their levels in PCa patients with BPH patients (1.47 in PCa vs 5.87 in BPH; p<0.0001). Results are in accordance with transrectal ultrasound prostatic biopsy (TRUSPB) results, with an area under curve (AUC) value of 0.83±0.03. Therefore urinary Spm shows potential to serve as a novel PCa diagnostic biomarker, which in turn can help to address the limited sensitivity and specificity problem of serum PSA test.
Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong SAR.
Tik-Hung
TH
Tsoi
Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong SAR.
Chi-Fai
CF
Chan
Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore, Singapore.
Wai-Lun
WL
Chan
SH Ho Urology Centre, Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR.
Ka-Fung
KF
Chiu
Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong SAR.
Wing-Tak
WT
Wong
SH Ho Urology Centre, Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR.
Chi-Fai
CF
Ng
Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong SAR.
Ka-Leung
KL
Wong
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019540:Area Under Curve; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine*; D001706:Biopsy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D011467:Prostate / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery / Q000652:urine; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery / Q000652:urine; D011700:Putrescine / Q000652:urine; D013095:Spermidine / Q000652:urine; D013096:Spermine / Q000652:urine*; D036761:Ultrasound, High-Intensity Focused, Transrectal
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D013096:Spermine; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen; D013095:Spermidine; D011700:Putrescine