Cancers, Vol. 12, Pages 870: Urine Endocannabinoids as Novel Non-Invasive Biomarkers for Bladder Cancer at Early Stage

Cancers, Vol. 12, Pages 870: Urine Endocannabinoids as Novel Non-Invasive Biomarkers for Bladder Cancer at Early Stage Cancers doi: 10.3390/cancers12040870 Authors: Riccardo Vago Alessandro Ravelli Arianna Bettiga Silvana Casati Giovanni Lavorgna Fabio Benigni Andrea Salonia Francesco Montorsi Marica Orioli Pierangela Ciuffreda Roberta Ottria Due to the involvement of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in cancer onset and progression and the less studied connection between ECS and bladder cancer, here an evaluation of the ECS modifications associated with bladder cancer is reported. Urine samples were collected from healthy volunteers and patients with bladder cancer at different grades. Endocannabinoids (ECs) and N-acylethanolamides (NAEs) were quantified by HPLC-MS/MS and results normalized for creatinine content. An increase in the urine concentrations of four ECs and NAEs analyzed was observed with a statistically significant increase in the arachidonoylethanolamide (AEA) and stearoylethanoamide (SEA) associated with bladder cancer. Receiver operating characteristic curves built with AEA and SEA data allowed the selection of 160 pg/mL for SEA (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.91, Selectivity (SE) 94%, Specificity (SP) 45%) and 8 pg/mL for AEA (AUC = 0.85, SE 94%, SP 61%) as the best cut-off values. Moreover, data from bladder cancer samples at different grades were derived from The Cancer Genome Atlas, and the expressions of thirteen different comp...
Source: Cancers - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research