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MicroRNAs as Appropriate Discriminators in Non-Specific Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) Elevation in Testicular Germ Cell Tumor Patients

Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) are the most commonly diagnosed malignancies in younger men. The monitoring of disease course and recurrence is supported by traditional tumor markers, including α-fetoprotein (AFP). AFP is physiologically synthesized in the liver and can be detected at increased...

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Autores principales: Lembeck, Anna L., Puchas, Philip, Hutterer, Georg, Barth, Dominik A., Terbuch, Angelika, Bauernhofer, Thomas, Pichler, Martin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7151547/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31906360
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ncrna6010002
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author Lembeck, Anna L.
Puchas, Philip
Hutterer, Georg
Barth, Dominik A.
Terbuch, Angelika
Bauernhofer, Thomas
Pichler, Martin
author_facet Lembeck, Anna L.
Puchas, Philip
Hutterer, Georg
Barth, Dominik A.
Terbuch, Angelika
Bauernhofer, Thomas
Pichler, Martin
author_sort Lembeck, Anna L.
collection PubMed
description Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) are the most commonly diagnosed malignancies in younger men. The monitoring of disease course and recurrence is supported by traditional tumor markers, including α-fetoprotein (AFP). AFP is physiologically synthesized in the liver and can be detected at increased levels in testicular cancer patients as well as under other benign liver diseases, which have been reported as a misleading cause of interpretation of TGCTs clinical course. A cluster of stem cell-associated microRNAs has been reported to outperform traditional tumor markers in newly diagnosed TGCTs, but the value of these microRNAs to differentiate between specific and unspecific AFP elevations, has never been reported. We report here a patient with chronic hepatitis B and normal liver related blood values presenting with a surgically removed primary TGCT and elevated AFP levels. Clinical staging revealed a suspect retroperitoneal metastatic lymph node together with other risk factors and first line treatment with PEB chemotherapy was administered. During curative treatment significantly rising AFP levels led to the assumption of chemo-resistant disease, mandating the initiation of salvage chemotherapy and surgical removal of the putative lymph node metastases. The AFP levels continuously decreased with the interruption of chemotherapeutic agents, indicating a chemotherapy-induced liver toxicity on the basis of pre-existing liver disease. MiR-371a-3p serum levels were not detectable in serum samples with elevated AFP levels. In conclusion, miR-371a-3p may be a reliable biomarker to differentiate between non-specific AFP elevations in TGCTs patients.
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spelling pubmed-71515472020-04-20 MicroRNAs as Appropriate Discriminators in Non-Specific Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) Elevation in Testicular Germ Cell Tumor Patients Lembeck, Anna L. Puchas, Philip Hutterer, Georg Barth, Dominik A. Terbuch, Angelika Bauernhofer, Thomas Pichler, Martin Noncoding RNA Case Report Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) are the most commonly diagnosed malignancies in younger men. The monitoring of disease course and recurrence is supported by traditional tumor markers, including α-fetoprotein (AFP). AFP is physiologically synthesized in the liver and can be detected at increased levels in testicular cancer patients as well as under other benign liver diseases, which have been reported as a misleading cause of interpretation of TGCTs clinical course. A cluster of stem cell-associated microRNAs has been reported to outperform traditional tumor markers in newly diagnosed TGCTs, but the value of these microRNAs to differentiate between specific and unspecific AFP elevations, has never been reported. We report here a patient with chronic hepatitis B and normal liver related blood values presenting with a surgically removed primary TGCT and elevated AFP levels. Clinical staging revealed a suspect retroperitoneal metastatic lymph node together with other risk factors and first line treatment with PEB chemotherapy was administered. During curative treatment significantly rising AFP levels led to the assumption of chemo-resistant disease, mandating the initiation of salvage chemotherapy and surgical removal of the putative lymph node metastases. The AFP levels continuously decreased with the interruption of chemotherapeutic agents, indicating a chemotherapy-induced liver toxicity on the basis of pre-existing liver disease. MiR-371a-3p serum levels were not detectable in serum samples with elevated AFP levels. In conclusion, miR-371a-3p may be a reliable biomarker to differentiate between non-specific AFP elevations in TGCTs patients. MDPI 2020-01-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7151547/ /pubmed/31906360 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ncrna6010002 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Case Report
Lembeck, Anna L.
Puchas, Philip
Hutterer, Georg
Barth, Dominik A.
Terbuch, Angelika
Bauernhofer, Thomas
Pichler, Martin
MicroRNAs as Appropriate Discriminators in Non-Specific Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) Elevation in Testicular Germ Cell Tumor Patients
title MicroRNAs as Appropriate Discriminators in Non-Specific Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) Elevation in Testicular Germ Cell Tumor Patients
title_full MicroRNAs as Appropriate Discriminators in Non-Specific Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) Elevation in Testicular Germ Cell Tumor Patients
title_fullStr MicroRNAs as Appropriate Discriminators in Non-Specific Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) Elevation in Testicular Germ Cell Tumor Patients
title_full_unstemmed MicroRNAs as Appropriate Discriminators in Non-Specific Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) Elevation in Testicular Germ Cell Tumor Patients
title_short MicroRNAs as Appropriate Discriminators in Non-Specific Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) Elevation in Testicular Germ Cell Tumor Patients
title_sort micrornas as appropriate discriminators in non-specific alpha-fetoprotein (afp) elevation in testicular germ cell tumor patients
topic Case Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7151547/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31906360
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ncrna6010002
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