Background: Urachal cancer is a rare type of cancer, often following a clinically aggressive course. Due to its rarity, knowledge about its molecular background is still limited. In addition, no sufficiently reliable diagnostic markers are available.
Objectives: The aim of the present study is to give an overview of our recent molecular projects on urachal cancer and to connect it with current literature in the field.
Materials and methods: Three projects are introduced. The first project identified and validated diagnostic biomarkers in urachal adenocarcinomas compared to colorectal adenocarcinomas and primary adenocarcinomas of the bladder using various proteomic methods. In the second project, the most relevant differential diagnostic markers between urachal adenocarcinomas and colorectal adenocarcinomas compared to normal tissue (urachal remnants) were determined by analyzing a miRNA panel. Sequence analyses were performed in the third project. The focus was on molecular differences to colorectal adenocarcinomas and urothelial carcinomas.
Results and conclusions: We detected potential biomarker candidates for the immunohistochemical differential-diagnosis and generated a miRNA-based diagnostic scoring system with a potentially high differential-diagnostic significance. The sequence analyses data confirm the molecular autonomy of the urachal adenocarcinomas compared to other entities.
Keywords: Adenocarcinoma; Differential diagnosis; Immunohistochemistry; Urachal cancer; miRNA.