Proteomic studies of urinary biomarkers for prostate, bladder and kidney cancers.

Urine is an ideal body fluid for the detection of protein markers produced by urological cancers as it can be sampled noninvasively and contains secreted and directly shed proteins from the prostate, bladder and kidney. Major challenges of working with urine include high inter-individual and intra-individual variability, low protein concentration, the presence of salts and the dynamic range of protein expression. Despite these challenges, significant progress is being made using modern proteomic methods to identify and characterize protein-based markers for urological cancers. The development of robust, easy-to-use clinical tests based on novel biomarkers has the potential to impact upon diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring and could revolutionize the treatment and management of these cancers.