Liquid Gold

Angie Szumlinski
|
July 23, 2024
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Almost everyone has a family member or close friend who has been diagnosed with cancer. As some people call it, the “big C”. It is the diagnosis no one wants, it is frightening as many times the disease isn’t identified until it has progressed, making treatment difficult at best. But what if a urine test could diagnose cancers earlier? One study seems to believe this could be the next frontier in cancer detection!

Physicians have known that urine can reveal a lot about our health which is why urinalysis has been part of medicine for 6000 years! It can detect diabetes, pregnancy, drug use, kidney conditions and many more conditions. In a recent study published in Medscape, researchers found that other conditions leave clues in urine too, and cancer may be one of the most promising. “Urine testing could detect biomarkers of early-stage cancers, not only from local but also distant sites”. It could also be used to help flag recurrence in cancer survivors who have undergone treatment.

Urine is mostly water and urea (a byproduct of amino acid metabolism). But urine also contains a mix of waste products, minerals, and other compounds the kidneys removed from the blood. Among them are “exfoliated cancer cells”, cell-free DNA, hormones, etc. Some of the cancers being identified through urine include prostate, head and neck cancers, and pancreatic cancer. Each cancer type is different, and more research is needed to map out which substances in urine identify cancers and to develop tests for mass adoption. Maybe scientists and clinicians could collaborate and use artificial intelligence techniques to combine urine test results with other data? The future has endless possibilities! Stay well and stay informed!

For more information:

Urine biomarkers enable pancreatic cancer detection up to 2 years before diagnosis – Debernardi – 2023 – International Journal of Cancer – Wiley Online Library

JCI Insight – ctDNA transiting into urine is ultrashort and facilitates noninvasive liquid biopsy of HPV+ oropharyngeal cancer

Development and Validation of an 18-Gene Urine Test for High-Grade Prostate Cancer | Oncology | JAMA Oncology | JAMA Network


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