Evaluation of urinary nucleosides in breast cancer patients before and after tumor removal

Objective: Evaluation of altered urinary nucleosides before and after tumor removal of breast cancer (BCa). Design and methods: Targeted metabolite profiling of 14 urinary nucleosides was conducted with both pre- and post-operative female patients with BCa (n = 150, age: 46.6 +/- 7.7 years), and female controls (n = 150, age: 46.8 +/- 7.7 years) by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry coupled to on-line extraction. Results: Levels of modified nucleosides (5-hydroxymethyl-2'-deoxyuridine, P<0.001 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine, P<0.001; 1-methyladenosine, P<0.02; N-2,N-2-dimethylguanosine, P<0.001) were significantly higher in pre-operative patients than in both normal controls and post-operative patients. Conclusions: This approach could be used to further understand the pathogenesis of BCa as well as to evaluate the effects of medical treatment. (C) 2009 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.