Diagnostic value of urine DACH2 level for bladder urothelial carcinoma

Objective To evaluate the value of urine DACH2 in the diagnosis of bladder urothelial carcinoma. Methods The urine samples of patients with suspicious bladder lesions who required transurethral resection were collected. The urine DACH2 concentration of all patients was analyzed by radioimmunologic assay. The receiver operating characteristic （ROC） curve was generated to assess the diagnostic efficacy of urine DACH2 level for bladder urothelial carcinoma. Results According to the results of pathological examination, 72 patients were divided into the benign diseases including chronic cystitis and urothelial hyperplasia （benign group, n = 23） and bladder urothelial carcinoma groups （cancer group, n = 49）. The preoperative urine DACH2 level in the cancer group was significantly higher than that in the benign group （P < 0.01）. In the cancer group, the preoperative urine DACH2 level in patients with high-grade bladder urothelial carcinoma was remarkably higher compared with that in their counterparts with low-grade carcinoma （P < 0.05）. The area under the ROC curve of urine DACH2 levels was 0.796. The specificity was 86.7% and the specificity was 83.4% when the optimal cutoff value of urine DACH2 level for the diagnosis of bladder urothelial carcinoma was 4.05 ng/ml. Conclusion The urine DACH2 level can serve as a tumor marker for early diagnosis of bladder urothelial carcinoma.