Urinary cell-free microRNA biomarker could discriminate bladder cancer from benign hematuria

The most common symptom of bladder cancer (BC) is hematuria. However, not all patients with hematuria are diagnosed with BC. Here, we explored a novel method to discriminate BC from hematuria under non-malignant conditions by measuring differences in urinary cell-free microRNA (miRNA) expression between patients with BC and those with hematuria.

A multicenter study was performed using 543 urine samples obtained from the National Biobank of Korea, including 326 BC, 174 hematuria, and 43 pyuria without cancer. The urinary miR-6124 to miR-4511 ratio was considerably higher in BC than in hematuria or pyuria, and enabled the discrimination of BC from patients with hematuria at a sensitivity of >90% (P<0.001). Conclusively, the proposed non-invasive diagnostic tool based on the expression ratio of urinary cell-free miR-6124 to miR-4511 can reduce unnecessary cystoscopies in patients with hematuria undergoing evaluation for BC, with a minimal loss in sensitivity for detecting cancer. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

International journal of cancer. 2018 Sep 05 [Epub ahead of print]

Xuan-Mei Piao, Pildu Jeong, Ye-Hwan Kim, Young Joon Byun, Yanjie Xu, Ho Won Kang, Yun-Sok Ha, Won Tae Kim, Jong-Young Lee, Seung Hwo Woo, Tae Gyun Kwon, Isaac Y Kim, Sung-Kwon Moon, Yung Hyun Choi, Eun-Jong Cha, Seok Joong Yun, Wun-Jae Kim

Department of Urology, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea., Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea., Department of Urology, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea., Department of Business Data Convergence, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea., Department of Urology, Eulji University Hospital, Daejeon, Korea., Section of Urologic Oncology and Dean and Betty Gallo Prostate Cancer Center, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA., Department of Food Science and Technology, Chung-Ang University, Ansung, 456-756, Korea., Department of Biochemistry, College of Oriental Medicine, Dong-Eui University, Busan, 614-052, Korea., Department of Biomedical Engineering, Chungbuk National University College of Medicine, Cheongju, Korea.