Implementation of a Hplc Method for the Evaluation of Urinary 4-Hydroxyphenylacetic Acid in Patients with Neuroendocrine Tumors

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Author Info

Anita Minopoli Bruna Grilli Chiara De Divitiis Ernesta Cavalcanti Gaetano Corso Luigi Russo Monica Gelzo Monica Capozzi Salvatore Tafuto Vittoria Barchiesi

Corresponding Author

Ernesta Cavalcanti
Laboratory Medicine Unit, Istituto Nazionale Tumori-IRCCS-Fondazione G. Pascale, Napoli, Italia

A B S T R A C T

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are a group of neoplasms that originate from neuroendocrine cells. They can occur in various anatomic locations, most commonly in gastro intestinal tract, lungs and pancreas. In NETs associated to the carcinoid syndrome, the tumor cells produce hormones, such as serotonin. 5- Hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), the main metabolite of serotonin, represents an useful urinary biomarker which is routinely determined to investigate and monitor patients with carcinoid syndrome by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The chromatographic profile obtained by a standardized commercial HPLC method shows also the presence of 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (pHPAA), which is physiologically excreted in urine of healthy people. Interestingly, in some NETs profiles we observed a high pHPAA peak that was not resolved from 5-HIAA peak at higher concentrations of one or both metabolites. Therefore, we implemented and validated a HPLC method for the determination of urinary pHPAA improving the chromatographic separation between 5-HIAA and pHPAA. In addition, we determined pHPAA levels in 40 urine samples from patients with NETs that resulted significantly higher compared to healthy subjects. Our preliminary results showed that the modified HPLC method allows to quantify accurately pHPAA that could represent a useful marker, together with 5-HIAA, for the management of patients with NETs.

Article Info

Article Type

Research Article

Publication history

Received: Mon 14, Oct 2019
Accepted: Fri 01, Nov 2019
Published: Wed 22, Apr 2020

Copyright

© 2023 Ernesta Cavalcanti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.COR.2019.5.16