Background & objective: It was reported that urinary modified nucleosides with abnormally high amounts were found in many cancer patients. This study was designed to investigate the usefulness of urinary nucleosides in the diagnosis of gastric carcinoma.
Methods: The concentrations of 15 kinds of urinary nucleosides from 50 healthy persons and 48 patients with gastric carcinoma were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Of 48 patients with gastric carcinoma, 25 underwent serum CEA examination.
Results: The average levels of 14 kinds of urinary nucleosides, m5U excepted, from patients with gastric carcinoma were higher than those from health persons (P< 0.05). Pseu 22.91+/-4.90, 34.87+/-21.41; U 0.34+/-0.32, 0.62+/-0.82; A 0.58+/-0.16, 0.96+/-0.75; C 0.17+/-0.15,0.24+/-0.19; m5U 0.03+/-0.07,0.07+/-0.06; I 0.26+/-0.10, 0.43+/-0.36; m1I 1.34+/-0.34, 2.44+/-1.39; ac4C 0.75+/-0.24, 1.08+/-0.72; G 0.09+/-0.04, 0.14+/-0.10; X 1.20+/-0.42, 1.90+/-1.09; m2G 0.61+/-0.16, 1.00+/-0.69; m6A 0.04+/-1.13, 0.07+/-0.08; m1A 2.26+/-0.56, 3.71+/-2.21; m22G 1.34+/-0.27, 2.25+/-1.39; m1G 0.80+/-0.25, 1.41+/-0.86. The level of nucleoside I was positively correlated with the tumor size (P< 0.05). The level of nucleoside X was positively correlated with lymph node metastasis (P< 0.05). Using the concentrations of 15 nucleosides as the data vectors, principal component analysis was applied to classify gastric cancer patients and normal adults, 63%(30/48) of cancer patients were correctly classified, in which the identification rate was higher than that of CEA method (12%).
Conclusion: Urinary modified nucleoside increased in the patients with gastric carcinoma, and it may be helpful in the diagnosis of gastric carcinoma.