Department of Laboratory Medicine, Shangdong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shangdong University, Jinan, Shangdong, China (mainland).
Department of Operation, Jinan Hospital, Jinan, Shangdong, China (mainland).
Med Sci Monit. 2017 Sep 27;23:4644-4649. doi: 10.12659/msm.901610.
BACKGROUND Initial diagnosis of carcinoma of the urinary bladder remains challenging. N-Myc downstream-regulated gene 2 (NDRG2) has been reported to be closely correlated with cell differentiation and proliferation in various cancers. However, its clinical significance in diagnosis of bladder cancer remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to detect the expression of NDRG2 and investigate its diagnostic value in bladder cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS We recruited 127 patients with bladder cancer and 97 healthy controls. Quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting analysis were conducted to measure the NDRG2 expression levels in urine of patients with bladder cancer, bladder cancer cell lines, and healthy controls. The correlations between NDRG2 expression and clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed by chi-square test, and the diagnostic value of NDRG2 was estimated by establishing a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. RESULTS The relative NDRG2 expression were significantly downregulated both at mRNA and protein levels in urine of patients with bladder cancer and in cell lines, and its low expression was distinctively correlated with tumor grade and stage. The ROC curve showed NDRG2 could be a good diagnostic marker, with an AUC of 0.888, indicating high sensitivity and specificity. CONCLUSIONS NDRG2 was decreased in patients with bladder cancer and might be involved in the progression of this malignancy. Moreover, NDRG2 could be a potential independent diagnostic biomarker for bladder cancer.
膀胱癌的初始诊断仍然具有挑战性。N- Myc 下游调节基因 2（NDRG2）已被报道与多种癌症中的细胞分化和增殖密切相关。然而，其在膀胱癌诊断中的临床意义尚不清楚。本研究旨在检测 NDRG2 的表达，并探讨其在膀胱癌诊断中的价值。
我们招募了 127 例膀胱癌患者和 97 例健康对照者。采用实时定量逆转录聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）和 Western blot 分析检测膀胱癌患者、膀胱癌细胞系和健康对照者尿液中的 NDRG2 表达水平。采用卡方检验分析 NDRG2 表达与临床病理特征的相关性，并通过建立受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线评估 NDRG2 的诊断价值。
膀胱癌患者尿液和细胞系中 NDRG2 的相对表达均显著下调，且其低表达与肿瘤分级和分期明显相关。ROC 曲线显示 NDRG2 可作为一种良好的诊断标志物，AUC 为 0.888，表明具有较高的灵敏度和特异性。
膀胱癌患者中 NDRG2 表达降低，可能参与了这种恶性肿瘤的进展。此外，NDRG2 可能是膀胱癌的潜在独立诊断生物标志物。
