Combination of urinary fibrinogen β-chain and tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins for the detection of bladder cancer

Giuliana Giribaldi; Claudia Filippini; Clara Viberti; Amina Khadjavi; Nicole Finesso; Daniela Ulliers; Stefano Turini; Bruno Emilio Bressan; Francesca Pecoraro; Mauro Prato; Alessandra Allione; Matteo De Bellis; Gabriele Montefusco; Giulia Bonomessi; Marco Allasia; Giuseppe Matullo; Francesco Soria; Paolo Gontero

doi:10.2144/fsoa-2021-0060

Combination of urinary fibrinogen β-chain and tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins for the detection of bladder cancer

Future Sci OA. 2021 Oct 11;7(9):FSO758. doi: 10.2144/fsoa-2021-0060. eCollection 2021 Oct.

Authors

Giuliana Giribaldi¹, Claudia Filippini², Clara Viberti³, Amina Khadjavi¹, Nicole Finesso¹, Daniela Ulliers¹, Stefano Turini⁴, Bruno Emilio Bressan¹, Francesca Pecoraro¹, Mauro Prato⁴, Alessandra Allione³, Matteo De Bellis⁵, Gabriele Montefusco⁵, Giulia Bonomessi⁵, Marco Allasia⁵, Giuseppe Matullo^{3

6}, Francesco Soria⁵, Paolo Gontero⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oncology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
² Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
³ Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
⁴ Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
⁵ Division of Urology, Department of Surgical Sciences, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza, Torino School of Medicine, Turin, Italy.
⁶ SC Medical Genetics, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza, Turin, Italy.

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate the performance of urinary fibrinogen β-chain (FBC) - either alone or associated with urinary tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins (UPY) - as bladder cancer (BCa) diagnostic biomarker.

Materials & methods: 164 subjects were tested.

Results: Significantly different FBC and UPY levels were found between BCa patients and controls, as well as between low-grade and high-grade cancers. The diagnostic accuracy was 0.84 for FBC and 0.87 for UPY. The combination of FBC and UPY improved the accuracy to 0.91. The addition of clinical variables (age, gender, and smoking habit) to FBC and UPY into a model for BCa prediction significantly improved the accuracy to 0.99. The combination of FBC and UPY adjusted for clinical variables associates with the highest sensitivity and good specificity.

Conclusion: Urinary FBC and UPY could be used as biomarkers for BCa diagnosis.

Keywords: bladder cancer; fibrinogen β-chain; tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins; urinary markers.