The role of clinical metabolomics in the diagnosis of bladder cancer

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Bladder cancer is a widespread disease characterized by high cancer-specific mortality and high cost of treatment. The search for available and reliable biological markers for the early diagnosis of urothelial carcinomas is an urgent task of oncourology. One of the promising ways to improve the efficiency of bladder cancer diagnostics is the use of the possibility of the clinical metabolomics.
 AIM: Was to study the possibility of assessing the content of various amino acids and their metabolites in blood serum for the diagnosis of bladder cancer.
 MATERIALS AND METHODS: Serum concentrations of 28 amino acids and their metabolites were studied in 18 patients with urothelial cancer and 20 representatives of the control group without an oncological history. History taking, routine oncological screening, and blood sampling for laboratory tests were performed.
 RESULTS: Four metabolomes (glycine, phenylalanine, asparagine, and threonine) were identified, the blood serum concentration of which significantly changes in patients with urothelial cancer. These metabolomes can be considered as potential biomarkers of urothelial cancer.
 CONCLUSIONS: The study of the serum content of these four amino acids seems to be the most promising for the isolation of a potential biomarker of urothelial cancer.