ONCOmmunity

Urinary 5-Aminolevulinic Acid Concentrations as a Potential Tumor Marker for Colorectal Cancer Screening and Recurrence.

By: Yosuke Kamada, Yasutoshi Murayama, Urara Ota, Kiwamu Takahashi, Tomohiro Arita, Toshiyuki Kosuga, Hirotaka Konishi, Ryo Morimura, Shuhei Komatsu, Atsushi Shiozaki, Yoshiaki Kuriu, Hisashi Ikoma, Masayoshi Nakanishi, Daisuke Ichikawa, Hitoshi Fujiwara, Kazuma Okamoto, Tohru Tanaka, Eigo Otsuji

Division of Digestive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
2016-2-15; doi:

Abstract

Background/aim

Tumor biomarkers, such as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cancer antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), are used to screen and monitor tumor recurrence in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). 5-Aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) is used in photodynamic diagnosis and therapy. Porphyrins produced by tumor cells are excreted in the urine after 5-ALA administration. In this study, we evaluated the use of porphyrins as novel tumor markers in urine samples from patients with CRC.

Patients

Porphyrin metabolite concentrations were measured in urine samples of 33 patients with CRC, 16 patients with benign disease and 8 healthy adults, after 5-ALA administration.

Results

The porphyrin metabolite concentrations were significantly increased in the CRC group compared to the control group, while in CRC patients, the porphyrin metabolite concentrations in urine were significantly decreased after surgery.

Conclusion

These results suggest that the measurement of porphyrin metabolites in urine may potentially serve as a new screening and recurrence marker for CRC.