Serum DNA and urine DNA alterations of urinary transitional cell bladder carcinoma detected by fluorescent microsatellite analysis

There are no reliable serologic tumor markers for transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the urinary bladder and noninvasive urine investigations are inadequate. We used fluorescent microsatellite analysis (MSA) to detect serum DNA and urine-sediment DNA alterations in patients with bladder cancer and prospectively collected fresh tumor, peripheral blood, serum and spontaneous urine specimens from 39 consecutive patients treated for TCC of the bladder to obtain the corresponding DNA. Fluorescent MSA was performed with 17 polymorphic markers from the chromosomal regions 5q, 8p, 9p, 9q, 13q, 14q, 17p, 17q and 20q in the 39 cancer patients and in 10 healthy controls. Serum DNA alterations were identified in 84.5% (33 of 39 patients) and tumor-specific urine DNA alterations indicating the diagnosis were present in 72% (27 of 39 patients) of cases. None of the healthy controls displayed serum DNA alterations. The highest frequency of serum DNA aberrations (56%) was detected for chromosomal region 8p. The most frequent alterations in urine-sediment DNA, 36% and 26%, were detected in chromosomal regions 8p and 9p, respectively. Identification of serum DNA and urine-sediment DNA alterations was not related to stage of disease or grade of tumor (p > 0.05). Thus, MSA offers a highly sensitive and specific method for serum- and urine-bound diagnosis of bladder TCC.