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. 2020 Jan;19(1):562-568.
doi: 10.3892/ol.2019.11080. Epub 2019 Nov 11.

Plasma aromatase as a sensitive and selective potential biomarker of bladder cancer and its role in tumorigenesis

Tomasz Guszcz  1 , Beata Szymańska  2 , Robert Kozlowski  1 , Zenon Lukaszewski  3 , Pawel Laskowski  4 , Ewa Gorodkiewicz  2
Affiliations

Plasma aromatase as a sensitive and selective potential biomarker of bladder cancer and its role in tumorigenesis

Tomasz Guszcz et al. Oncol Lett. 2020 Jan.

Abstract

Bladder cancer (BCa) is the ninth most common cancer in the world and its early detection is crucial for successful therapy. Unfortunately, there are no satisfactory tools to detect BCa at early stages and BCa's confirmation muscle-invasive. The search for a suitable biomarker is therefore necessary and aromatase is a potential candidate. The purpose of the current study was to determine if aromatase serves as a biomarker of BCa. A Surface Plasmon Resonance Imaging biosensor was applied for the quantification and determination of aromatase. A total of 3 µl blood plasma was used for a single measurement. The results revealed that the aromatase concentration in the plasma of patients with BCa (n=78) ranged from 17.41-57.44 ng/ml. The range determined in healthy donors (n=18) was 2.59-7.74 ng/ml. Additionally, it was revealed that muscle invasive BCa samples exhibited elevated, statistically significant (P=0.01) average aromatase concentrations in blood plasma (38.64 ng/ml) when compared with non-muscle invasive samples (29.83 ng/ml). The results demonstrated that plasma aromatase may serve as an excellent bimarker of BCa with 100% sensitivity, 100% selectivity and an area under the curve value of the reciever operating characteristic curve equal to 1.0. Furthermore, the marker differenciated between muscle-invasive and non muscle-invasive BCa with a sensitivity of 60% and a specificity of 81%. In conclusion, aromatase may serve a role in bladder tumorigenesis.

Keywords: aromatase; biosensors; bladder cancer; liquid biopsy; surface plasmon resonance imaging.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Box plots of aromatase blood plasma concentration in healthy individuals and patients with BCa tumors. BCa, bladder cancer.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Box plots of aromatase blood plasma concentration in non muscle-invasive and muscle-invasive tumors.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Receiver operating characteristic curve of blood plasma aromatase concentrations for healthy individuals and patients with BCa. Cut-off value, 17.41 ng/ml. BCa, bladder cancer.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Receiver operating characteristic curve of plasma aromatase concentrations for patients with muscle-invasive and non muscle-invasive BCa. Cut-off value, 37.32 ng/ml. BCa, bladder cancer.
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