Nunzia Santini

Dr. Nunzia Santini

Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Chirurgia, Università degli studi Napoli "Federico II", Naples, Campania, Italy

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

1Year (2026-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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NSNunzia Santini
Nunzia Santini
APAlfredo Procino
Alfredo Procino
SLSven Ljubić
Sven Ljubić
Damir ĐermićDamir Đermić
Damir Đermić
Đurđica UgarkovićĐurđica Ugarković
Đurđica Ugarković
Isidoro FelicielloIsidoro Feliciello
Isidoro Feliciello
Bladder cancer (BC) is a common urological malignancy that lacks the non-invasive biomarkers that would make it suitable for early diagnosis. Human alpha-satellite DNA (hASAT) is a tandemly repeated centromeric/pericentromeric DNA family associated with chromosomal stability and cancer-related genomic instability. We quantified extracellular hASAT (ec-hASAT) in plasma circulating cell-free DNA by nanoplate-based digital PCR in a pilot cohort including 29 BC-negative samples, 10 patients with non-muscle-invasive BC (NMIBC), and 7 patients with muscle-invasive BC (MIBC). Plasma ec-hASAT copy number was higher in patients with BC than in the BC-negative group (Mann–Whitney U test, p = 6.61 × 10−7). BC-negative samples ranged from 225 to 11,864 copies/µL plasma, whereas BC samples ranged from 1138 to 16,097 copies/µL plasma. ROC analysis yielded an AUC of 0.944 for discriminating BC from BC-negative samples. At an exploratory threshold of 2000 copies/µL plasma, sensitivity was 94.1% (16/17; exact 95% CI, 71.3–99.9%) and specificity was 89.7% (26/29; exact 95% CI, 72.6–97.8%). These preliminary data support plasma ec-hASAT as a candidate minimally invasive biomarker for BC detection, including NMIBC, and justify validation in larger prospective cohorts.