Serum and Urine Levels of Sarcosine in Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia and Newly Diagnosed Prostate Cancer Patients

Currently, no potent tools are available to differentiate diagnose between patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients (NDPCa) based on increased serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as the value may increase in both conditions. Therefore, finding new biomarkers is considered to be a major issue in this regard.

The present study aimed to differentiate BPH and NDPCa patients and evaluate serum and urine sarcosine levels as reliable markers.

This study was conducted on 67 patients with NDPCa and BPH and healthy controls. PSA evaluation was performed on all the patients, and the serum and urine levels of sarcosine were measured using the ELISA assay. In addition, the serum and urine sarcosine levels were assessed using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

The mean serum and urine sarcosine levels in the healthy controls were 3.0 ± 2.0 and 6.0 ± 2.0 ng/mL, respectively, while they were 9.0 ± 1.0 and 8.0 ± 1.0 ng/mL in the patients with BPH, respectively. The serum and urine sarcosine levels in the patients with NDPCa were 21.02 ± 2.0 and 15.0 ± 2.0 ng/mL, respectively. Significant differences were observed in the serum and urine sarcosine between the patients with BPH and NDPCa (P < 0.001). In addition, the serum sarcosine content increased in the patients with NDPCa and BPH compared to the healthy controls. The serum and urine levels of sarcosine had the following order: healthy controls < patients with BPH<patients with NDPCa.

According to the results, the serum and urine sarcosine contents might provide beneficial evidence for PCA diagnosis, while differentiating the patients with BPH and NDPCa. Furthermore, sarcosine levels may be valuable markers for PCA with clinical significance compared to PSA