Urinary excretion of deoxypyridinoline in patients with breast cancer.

Deoxypyridinoline (Dpyr), a crosslink of collagen molecules found in bone and excreted in urine during bone degradation, was measured in patients with breast cancer. Four groups of patients included, 42 premenopausal (32 without and 10 with bone metastases) and 65 postmenopausal (39 without and 26 with bone metastases) women. For comparison, 21 healthy women were studied. Dpyr was measured in urine samples using an enzyme immunoassay. Breast cancer patients showed elevated levels of Dpyr, irrespective of whether or not they had bone metastases. Dpyr excretion was more increased in postmenopausal patients with bone metastases. The results reflect an important bone turnover in breast cancer. The data suggest that Dpyr assay seems promising to evaluate the rate of bone loss and the response to treatment in bone metastases.