The clinical usefulness of urinary N(1),N(12)-diacetylspermine (DiAcSpm) levels as a tumor marker in patients with colorectal cancer.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of urinary N(1),N(12)-diacetylspermine (DiAcSpm) measured by the colloidal gold aggregation method as a tumor marker for colorectal cancer (CRC). The preoperative urine of 113 CRC patients was collected, and the urinary DiAcSpm was measured by a reagent kit for DiAcSpm determination based on colloidal gold aggregation using automatic biochemical analyzers. The urinary DiAcSpm levels significantly correlated with distant metastasis and Tumor-Node-Metastasis (TNM) stage. The positive rates of urinary DiAcSpm were significantly higher than those of serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) or cancer antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) in stages 0+I, II, III and IV. The positive rates of urinary DiAcSpm were also significantly higher than those of serum CEA or CA19-9 in the early and advanced CRC groups according to the Japan Classification of Colorectal Cancer. Therefore, urinary DiAcSpm, measured by a reagent kit for DiAcSpm determination based on colloidal gold aggregation, may be useful as a non-invasive tumor marker in patients with CRC.