U.K. researchers discovered a metabolite that could allow physicians to use urine tests to detect liver cancer, the Independent reported Dec. 24.
Researchers at the Glasgow, Scotland-based Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute discovered the metabolite, which had not been seen in mammals before, while studying a protein known to be prevalent in liver cancer called glutamine synthetase. This protein produces the metabolite at increased levels as the liver tumor grows.
"We were excited to discover this new metabolite which had never been described before in mammals, which is a good candidate for diagnostic testing as it's specific to a particular type of liver cancer, can be easily detected in urine, and could potentially be used as a marker to monitor the growth of tumors," Saverio Tardito, PhD, lead researcher, told the Independent. "We now plan further studies to investigate how early in liver cancer the metabolite appears, to identify how early a urine test could reliably diagnose the disease."
Currently there is no definitive urine test to detect or diagnose any form of cancer, the report said.