Urinary fibronectin: potential as a biomarker in prostatic cancer

The levels of fibronectin in urine from patients with prostatic cancer, from patients with benign urologic disease, and from healthy control individuals were determined by the use of a gelatin affinity chromatography procedure. The assay does not seem to give false positive results, inasmuch as evaluation of 16 patients with benign urologic disease showed urinary fibronectin levels in the same range as those found in healthy controls. For a single determination, the levels in 42 per cent of prostatic cancer patients were elevated above control levels; when prostatic cancer patients were evaluated sequentially, the determination of urinary fibronectin levels over three sampling times approached a 100 per cent correlation with presence of disease. Inasmuch as levels of urinary fibronectin episodically elevate in patients with prostatic carcinoma, the differential frequency and magnitude of urinary fibronectin elevations may be useful markers to assess tumor aggressiveness and to monitor the impact of a therapeutic modality.