Maddalone Maria Grazia, Oderda Marco, Mengozzi Giulio, Gesmundo Iacopo, Novelli Francesco, Giovarelli Mirella, Gontero Paolo, Occhipinti Sergio
Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Laboratory Medicine, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, 10126 Turin, Italy.
Division of Urology, Department of Surgical Science, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy.
Cancers (Basel). 2022 Oct 28;14(21):5316. doi: 10.3390/cancers14215316.
Prostate Cancer (PCa) is one of the most common malignancies in men worldwide, with 1.4 million diagnoses and 310,000 deaths in 2020. Currently, there is an intense debate regarding the serum prostatic specific antigen (PSA) test as a diagnostic tool in PCa due to the lack of specificity and high prevalence of over-diagnosis and over-treatments. One of the most consistent characteristics of PCa is the marked decrease in zinc; hence the lost ability to accumulate and secrete zinc represents a potential parameter for early detection of the disease. We quantified zinc levels in urine samples collected after a standardized prostatic massage from 633 male subjects that received an indication for prostate biopsy from 2015 and 2019 at AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino Hospital. We observed that the mean zinc levels were lower in the urine of cancer patients than in healthy subjects, with a decreasing trend in correlation with the progression of the disease. The combination of zinc with standard parameters, such as PSA, age, digital rectal exploration results, and magnetic resonance findings, displayed high diagnostic performance. These results suggest that urinary zinc may represent an early and non-invasive diagnostic biomarker for prostate cancer.
前列腺癌（PCa）是全球男性中最常见的恶性肿瘤之一，2020年有140万例诊断病例和31万例死亡病例。目前，由于缺乏特异性以及过度诊断和过度治疗的高发生率，关于血清前列腺特异性抗原（PSA）检测作为前列腺癌诊断工具存在激烈争论。前列腺癌最一致的特征之一是锌含量显著降低；因此，失去积累和分泌锌的能力代表了该疾病早期检测的一个潜在参数。我们对2015年至2019年在都灵大学城市健康与科学医院接受前列腺活检指征的633名男性受试者在标准化前列腺按摩后收集的尿液样本中的锌水平进行了量化。我们观察到，癌症患者尿液中的平均锌水平低于健康受试者，并且与疾病进展呈下降趋势。锌与标准参数（如PSA、年龄、直肠指检结果和磁共振检查结果）相结合，显示出较高的诊断性能。这些结果表明，尿锌可能是前列腺癌的一种早期非侵入性诊断生物标志物。
