Analysis of the Fragmentation and Integrity of Urine Cell-Free DNA as a Diagnostic and Staging Biomarker for Bladder Cancer

Bladder cancer (BC) is a lethal urological malignancy, with current diagnostic and follow-up methods being invasive and costly. Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in liquid biopsies has shown promise in cancer diagnostics, but its fragmentation and integrity in urine remain underexplored in BC, becoming the aim of this study. cfDNA was isolated from the urine of 156 patients with BC of most stages and 79 matched controls without renal or bladder conditions. The amount of a large (>250-bp) and a nested small (<125-bp) fragment of ACTB, AR, MYC, BCAS1, and STOX1 was quantified by quantitative real-time PCR.