Urine Test for Diagnosing Kidney Cancer Inches Nearer to Development

A group of investigators from the Washington Univ. School of Medicine, St. Louis, during the course of their studies on kidney cancer patients have recognized a set of proteins whose excretion via urine take place and may lead to sooner and far precise identification of the condition.

This study is the foremost of its kind that recognizes proteins excreted via urine which seems to precisely show the existence of nearly ninety percent of all cases of kidney cancer.

Presently, there is absence of any analytical test in case of kidney cancer. Discovery of nearly eighty percent of kidney tumors is actually incidental when the person is undergoing a CAT scanning procedure or ultrasound tests which have been recommended for unassociated stomach complaints.

Chief author of the study, Dr. Evan D. Kharasch stated that kidney cancer is a sly and often lethal form of cancer. Over eighty percent of patients with kidney cancer face fatality in 5 years time since by the time the disease is identified it frequently has metastasized past the kidney to other areas of the body. Kidney cancer when discovered in its preliminary staging is still treatable in a vast fraction of people.

Dr. Kharasch along with co-author Jeremiah Morrisey, observed samples of urine collected from 42 study entrants that had gained awareness of having kidney cancer while undergoing an imaging scan of their abdomen and from fifteen people that were cancer-free, however had been on schedule for surgical procedure. Another nineteen study entrants in good health and not due for any form of surgical intervention were also part of the study.

The study investigators laid emphasis on duo proteins which earlier has been observed to be present in kidney tumors, namely ADFP (adipophilin) and AQP1 (aquaporin-1). They uncovered that huge quantities of these proteins were being secreted in the urine of patients having kidney cancer and whose urine samples were collected for the study.

Levels of aquaporin-1 and adipophilin were not high in people in good health or patients that were cancer-free and scheduled for surgery. The investigators additionally observed that on removal of the kidney tumors, levels of these duo proteins presence in urine samples plummeted considerably.

Elucidating the study finding, Dr. Kharasch considers that in the analogous manner that mammograms are used for breast cancer screening and blood analysis done for prostate cancer screening, they could have the chance of detecting these duo proteins in urine as a means of screening for kidney cancer.

Morrissey stated that additional testing would be necessary for ascertaining if individuals having other kinds of kidney ailments additionally had elevated ADFP and AQP1 levels in their urine samples.

Dr. Kharasch and associate Morrissey stated that since this research has analyzed solely those people who had by then been diagnosed with cancer after imaging test hence further study would be required for seeing how soon in kidney cancer do the levels of the duo proteins surge and if the strength of these proteins in the urine could match up with the kidney tumor size.

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