Fluorescence analysis of urine and its potential for ovarian cancer screening

Early diagnosis of ovarian cancer could lead to decreased mortality. We assessed the possible use of urine autofluorescence analysis in its diagnostics and screening.We analysed urine from 42 healthy volunteers, 35 patients with benign, and 36 patients with malignant ovarian tumors. Synchronous fluorescence spectra with a 70 nm wavelength difference were recorded for (1:1 - 1:1024) urine dilutions. Concentration matrices of synchronous spectra (CMSS) were used to classify samples into tested groups.CMSS analysis allowed us to distinguish patients with malignant tumors from healthy ones with a high sensitivity (91.67 %) and specificity (100 %), a positive predictive value (PPV) 100 % and a negative predictive value (NPV) 93.33 %. However, discrimination between benign and malignant ovarian tumors was weaker, with sensitivity 86.11 %, specificity 77.14 %, PPV 79.49 % and NPV 84.38 %. Fluorescence intensity and the position of peaks at 330 and 360 nm were found to be associated with the grade and stage, suggesting that different fluorescent metabolites may prevail at different stages of the disease.CMSS analysis of urine provides an alternative for ovarian cancer screening method development and could be used as a diagnostic test to detect the recurrence of the disease after therapy.