Non-invasive urinary metabolomic profiling discriminates prostate cancer from benign prostatic hyperplasia.

INTRODUCTION

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common malignancies in men worldwide. Serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) level has been extensively used as a biomarker to detect PCa. However, PSA is not cancer-specific and various non-malignant conditions, including benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), can cause a rise in PSA blood levels, thus leading to many false positive results.

OBJECTIVES

In this study, we evaluated the potential of urinary metabolomic profiling for discriminating PCa from BPH.

METHODS

Urine samples from 64 PCa patients and 51 individuals diagnosed with BPH were analysed using H nuclear magnetic resonance (H-NMR). Comparative analysis of urinary metabolomic profiles was carried out using multivariate and univariate statistical approaches.

RESULTS

The urine metabolomic profile of PCa patients is characterised by increased concentrations of branched-chain amino acids (BCAA), glutamate and pseudouridine, and decreased concentrations of glycine, dimethylglycine, fumarate and 4-imidazole-acetate compared with individuals diagnosed with BPH.

CONCLUSION

PCa patients have a specific urinary metabolomic profile. The results of our study underscore the clinical potential of metabolomic profiling to uncover metabolic changes that could be useful to discriminate PCa from BPH in a clinical context.