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Urinary N1,N12-diacetylspermine as a biomarker for pediatric cancer: a case–control study

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Abstract

Purpose

Minimally invasive examinations are particularly important in pediatric patients. Although the significance of urinary N1,N12-diacetylspermine (DiAcSpm) as a tumor marker (TM) has been reported in many types of adult cancers, its usefulness in pediatric cancers has not been reported. This may be due to urinary DiAcSpm level variations with age. This study aims to measure the normal levels of urinary DiAcSpm in healthy individuals and investigate its usefulness as a TM in childhood cancer.

Methods

Urinary samples were collected from pediatric patients with and without cancer. The urinary DiAcSpm levels were measured, and the values were compared.

Results

A total of 32 patients with cancer and 405 controls were enrolled in the study. Of the 32 patients, 13 had neuroblastoma, 9 had malignant lymphoma (ML), and 10 had leukemia. In the control group, the urinary DiAcSpm values markedly fluctuated among those with young age, especially infants; meanwhile, the values converged among those aged roughly 10 years and above. The sensitivity of DiAcSpm was significantly different among the three types of cancers: neuroblastoma (30.8%), ML (77.8%), and leukemia (40%).

Conclusion

The urinary DiAcSpm value is a useful TM for both screening and follow-up of ML.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the patients and staff at Nagoya University Hospital, Aichi Children’s Health and Medical Center, and Tokyo Metropolitan Cancer and Infectious Disease Center Komagome Hospital who assisted in urine collection. Thanks are also due to Ms. Fumie Saito and Ms. Emi Takahama for their technical assistance. We are grateful to Dr. Naoto Matsuyama of Alfresa Pharma for providing us with the AutoDiAcSpm® reagent.

Funding

This research was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (16K08957) and by some part of the special grant from Tokyo Metropolitan Government to Kyoko Hiramatsu.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatric Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, 65 Tsurumaicho, Showa, Nagoya, 466-8550, Japan

    Kazuki Yokota, Hizuru Amano, Takahisa Tainaka, Chiyoe Shirota, Wataru Sumida, Satoshi Makita, Masamune Okamoto, Aitaro Takimoto, Akihiro Yasui, Yoichi Nakagawa & Hiroo Uchida

  2. Department of Rare/Refractory Cancer Analysis Research, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan

    Akinari Hinoki

  3. Stem Cell Project, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Tokyo, Japan

    Kyoko Hiramatsu & Masao Kawakita

  4. Department of Hematology, Saitama Cancer Center, Saitama, Japan

    Machiko Kawamura

  5. Department of Pediatrics, Tokyo Metropolitan Cancer and Infectious Diseases Center Komagome Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

    Machiko Kawamura

  6. Center for Advanced Medicine and Clinical Research, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan

    Yachiyo Kuwatsuka

Authors
  1. Kazuki Yokota
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  2. Akinari Hinoki
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  3. Kyoko Hiramatsu
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  4. Hizuru Amano
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Contributions

Conception and design by KY, KH, AH, HU, and MasK. Provision of study materials or patients by KY, AH, MacK, TT, CS, WS, SM, MO, AT, AY, and YN. Collection and assembly of data by KY, KH, HA, MacK, MasK, TT, CS, WS, SM, MO, AT, AY, YN, and YK. Data analysis and interpretation by KY, KH, AH, HA, YK, KH, HU, and MasK. The manuscript was mainly written by KY, HA, MacK, HU, and MasK. All authors approved the Manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hiroo Uchida.

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Yokota, K., Hinoki, A., Hiramatsu, K. et al. Urinary N1,N12-diacetylspermine as a biomarker for pediatric cancer: a case–control study. Pediatr Surg Int 37, 1659–1665 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00383-021-04987-y

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