Concentration and Integrity Indexes of Urine Cell-Free DNA as Promising Biomarkers for Early Lung Cancer Diagnosis

Abstract

Aim: To explore the role of urine cell-free DNA (ucfDNA) concentration and integrity indexes as potential biomarkers for lung cancer diagnosis. Materials & methods: Quantitative real-time PCR targeting Arthrobacter luteus ( ALU) repeats at three size fragments ( ALU-60, 115 and 247 bp) was performed in 55 lung cancer patients and 35 healthy individuals. Results: ucfDNA concentration and integrity indexes were significantly higher in lung cancer patients than in healthy controls. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for differentiating patients with stage I/II from healthy controls by ALU fragments concentration were 0.856, 0.909 and 0.932, respectively. In addition, the ucfDNA integrity indexes in patients with lymph node metastasis were significantly higher than in patients with non-metastatic. Conclusion: ucfDNA concentration and integrity indexes could serve as promising biomarkers for lung cancer diagnosis.

Integrity and quantity of salivary cell‐free DNA as a potential molecular biomarker in oral cancer: A preliminary study

“…9 ALU-targeting qPCR represents the most common method for assessing DNA integrity, specifically ALU115 and ALU247 are the sequences analyzed to determine DNA originating from apoptotic and necrotic cell death, respectively. 9,10,25,26 Like Ren et al, 27 we have used three sets of ALU primers: two primer sets for the amplicons with 60 and 115 bp lengths that amplify both short and long DNA fragments, and a primer set for the amplicon 247 bp that amplifies only longer DNA fragments. ALU sequences are transposable DNA elements (short interspersed elements) of around 300 bp length that comprise more than 10% of the mass of the human genome.…”

ALU repeat as potential molecular marker in the detection and prognosis of different cancer types: A systematic review

“…The present review identified the role of ALU element in cancer progression. Collectively, our data indicated that ALU elements can be used as a biomarker (29,35,44,47,49,52,54,63). The use of cfDNA, for early diagnosis, prognosis biomarkers and monitoring of therapy have been a significant advancement in clinical medicine (18,47,51,52,(60)(61)(62).…”

Circulating cell-free-DNA concentration is a good biomarker for diagnosis of colorectal cancer in Mexican patients

“…Currently, liquid biopsies are highly reliable and easy to analyze diagnostic tools used for the evaluation of benign and malignant tumors. ccfDNA is released from dead cells by the normal process of apoptosis, but also include DNA released from tumor cells; therefore, the total concentration of ccfDNA is increased in several cancer types, including breast (31), lung (32), gastric (33), urologic (34), head and neck (35) and CRC (17,26,30,36).…”