Clinical Significance of Non-invasive Urine Gene Testing for the Early Diagnosis and Recurrence Monitoring of Bladder Cancer

WANG Jun; YANG Qingliang; CHEN Zhifeng; ZHANG Haifang

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1004-437X.2025.09.017

Abstract：Objective To investigate the clinical significance of urine gene testing for the early diagnosis and recurrence monitoring of bladder cancer(BLCA).Methods A total of 180 patients with initial BLCA and 32 patients with recurrent BLCA were selected,the free and intracellular miRNA-143,miRNA-223,miRNA-373,MDK and CXCR2 genes in their urine were detected by real-time PCR.And four patients were followed up for 24 months.Results In 212 patients,miRNA-143,miRNA-223,miRNA-373,MDK and CXCR2 gene expression levels were similar in free and cell urine:all were higher than the controls(P＜0.05).Except CXCR2 gene expression level was higher than the initial patients(P＜0.05),the other four genes were not statistically different(P＞0.05).The expression levels of miRNA-223 and MDK genes showed no statistical significance between patients in stages T2 and T3,while the rest of the genes showed an increased expression with the severity of clinical staging(P＜0.05).There were differences in the expression levels of these five genes among patients with different pathological grades(P＜0.05),and the expression levels increased with higher grade.The corresponding data of free genes and the corresponding groups of genes in the cell were clearly related:miRNA-143(r=0.964),miRNA-223(r=0.973),miRNA-373(r=0.966),MDK(r=0.994)and CXCR2(r=0.978).In the recurrent group,miRNA-143(r=0.984),miRNA-223(r=0.951),miRNA-373(r=0.990),MDK(r=0.975),and CXCR2(r=0.981).The results of the 24-month follow-up in four patients showed that gene expression levels were closely correlated with tumor resection and recurrence.Conclusion Urinary miRNA-143,miRNA-223,miRNA-373,MDK and CXCR2 can be used for early diagnosis and recurrence monitoring of BLCA.