Introduction

The clinical diagnosis of urothelial carcinoma (UC) relies on invasive methods in patients with hematuria. Although more sensitive and noninvasive screening methods are required, a specific serum biomarker for UC is lacking._x000D_ To examine whether the serum glycan-based biomarkers can be applied to detecting UC.

Methods

Between April 1994 and June 2016, serum N-glycan concentrations were retrospectively measured in 212 patients with UC before treatment (UC group) and 212 pair-matched controls (VLT group) using glycoblotting and mass spectrometry._x000D_ N-glycan levels were compared between the groups using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to select candidate N-glycans. We created an N-glycan score based on the combination of candidate N-glycans. The specificity and sensitivity of the candidate N-glycan score were evaluated using ROC curves._x000D_

Results

The N-glycan score was calculated using six N-glycans (m/z 1566, 1687, 1769, 1871, 2011, 2337) that were significantly associated with UC. The median N-glycan score was significantly higher in the UC group than in the VLT group (5.0 vs. 1.0, P < 0.001). The predictive value of the N-glycan score for UC detection was significant, with a sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve of 93%, 81%, and 0.95%, respectively.

Conclusions

Serum N-glycan content has the potential to be a specific and sensitive novel serum biomarker that may improve the accuracy of detection for UC and reduce unnecessary invasive screening. Validation of this test in a large-scale prospective study is needed.

Funding

none