A simple urine test could one day be an effective way to screen for breast cancer, a new study suggests.
The notion of a so-called “dipstick” test envisions a high-tech sifting through just a few drops of urine in the search for elevated levels of two particular biomarkers, MMP-9 and ADAM-12, which can sometimes indicate the earliest stages of tumor growth, the researchers found.
They had identified a small panel of proteins in the urine of women who have breast cancer, and these proteins predict both disease status and stage of the cancer.
Debbie Saslow, director of breast and gynecologic cancer at the American Cancer Society, noted “In theory, this could be really good,” she said. “And biomarkers are an exciting field. But aside from this being preliminary, we also have to deal with the question, what are we going to do with those women who have this biomarker? Because we already have ways to know which women are at increased risk, but we don’t have a lot to recommend for them once they’re identified.”
Source: Yahoo! Health, 3 October 2008
Chapter: Cancer,Urine :: 15 October 2008
