Emerging Utility of Urinary Cell-free Nucleic Acid Biomarkers for Prostate, Bladder, and Renal Cancers
Lin et al.
The finding, in our words
Urinary cell-free nucleic acids represent a promising and potentially more sensitive liquid biopsy for genitourinary cancers than blood or urine sediment tests, with advantages for early-stage disease and potential for patient self-collection at home to allow frequent monitoring.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
The study found that testing for ASCL1/LHX8 DNA methylation in at-home collected first-void urine can detect most cervical cancers and high-grade precancers, supporting a fully molecular screening pathway without a clinical visit.
Van Keer et al., Communications medicine · source ↗
DNA methylation levels in self-collected cervicovaginal samples fell two years after treatment in patients who remained free of recurrent cervical cancer. This shows that home-collected urine and cervicovaginal specimens can be used to assess methylation markers for surveillance of cervical cancer recurrence.
Schaafsma et al., International journal of cancer · source ↗
This review surveys the use of tumour-derived cell-free DNA in urine for detecting non-urological cancers, covering methodological challenges such as DNA methylation analysis and transrenal transport mechanisms, and argues that urine self-collection could enable convenient home-based cancer screening at a curable stage.
This literature review found that DNA methylation markers on self-collected urine or cervicovaginal swabs detected cervical intraepithelial neoplasia as well as cytology. The combination could improve screening uptake and reduce loss to follow-up, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, though more evidence is needed to identify the most efficacious methylation tests.
Sumiec et al., Infectious agents and cancer · source ↗
First-void urine is established as a reliable self-collected specimen for human papillomavirus screening, triage, and post-vaccination surveillance. The use of specialised collection devices and advanced molecular assays supports the integration of non-invasive sampling into routine cervical cancer prevention strategies.
Poljak et al., Journal of clinical microbiology · source ↗