A simple urine test may distinguish between the benign and aggressive forms of prostate cancer, researchers from the University of Michigan reported in a study published in the current issue of the journal Nature.

 

The finding is a step forward in treating prostate cancer, a disease diagnosed in approximately 220,000 US men annually. About 28,000 of them die, which makes prostate cancer the most common cancer and second-leading cancer killer among men. Worldwide, 221,000 men die annually because of it, from the 679,000 news cases diagnosed.

 

The most difficult part in treating prostate cancer is determining how aggressive the tumors really are, lead researcher Professor Arul Chinnaiyan said. “We end up over-treating our patients because physicians don’t’ know which tumors will be slow-growing. With this research, we have identified a potential marker for the aggressive tumor.”

 

For the study, the researchers analyzed 1,126 molecules produced by the body in a total of 262 samples taken from patients with advanced cancer. They found that sarcosine, a metabolite produced by the body, was often met at elevated levels in samples taken from patients with advanced cancer, but not in samples taken from healthy tissue.

 

The molecule was a better marker than prostate specific antigen, a protein often used to diagnose prostate cancer.

 

The finding suggests that sarcosine plays a significant role in helping cancer spread, which makes researchers believe that drugs targeting it may also lead to a better prognosis of prostate cancer.