Affiliations: [a] Centre of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India | [b] Department of General Surgery, Chattrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University, Lucknow, India | [c] Department of Urology, Chattrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University, Lucknow, India
Correspondence:
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Corresponding authors: Dr. Abhinav A. Sonkar, Department of General Surgery, Chattrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University, Lucknow 226001, Uttar Pradesh, India. E-mail: vandana_abhinav@rediffmail.com; Prof. Raja Roy, Centre of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rae Bareli Road, Lucknow 226014, Uttar Pradesh, India. Fax: +91 522 2668215; E-mail: rajaroy_cdri@yahoo.com.
Abstract: Urinary bladder cancer is a major epidemiological problem that continues to grow each year. It opens avenues for investigative research for the identification of new disease markers and diagnostic techniques. In this pilot study, utility of non-invasive 1H NMR spectroscopy has been evaluated for probing the metabolic perturbations occurring in non-muscle invasive urinary bladder cancer. 1H NMR spectra of urine of bladder cancer patients and controls (healthy and urinary tract infection/bladder stone) (n=103) were acquired at 400MHz. The non-overlapping resonances of citrate, dimethylamine, phenylalanine, taurine and hippurate were first identified and then quantitated by 1H NMR spectra, with respect to an external reference sodium-3-trimethylsilylpropionate (TSP). The concentrations of these metabolites were then statistically analyzed. The cancer patients showed significant (p< 0.05) variations in concentration of hippurate and citrate as compared with healthy controls and benign controls. The significant elevation in concentration of taurine was observed in urine of bladder cancer patients, which was below the sensitivity limit of 400MHz in control cases. However, stages Ta, T1 and carcinoma in situ (CIS) cannot be differentiated on the basis of altered metabolite indices but their composition may reflect the biochemical alterations in metabolism of cancer cells.
