New Bladder Cancer Test

There is a new non-invasive bladder cancer test which detects cancer proteins in the urine. It could be a big breakthrough in detecting this common malignancy. Right now, 13,000 Americans die of bladder cancer each year. So, like many other malignancies, early detection is so important. In fact, if diagnosed early in the course, when the cancer is confined to the lining of the bladder wall, the five year survival rate is around 95%!

"I had blood in my urine." What Mary Jo Dunn experienced is never a normal sign. She underwent a biopsy and was diagnosed with bladder cancer. Bladder cancer is the fifth most common malignancy in the United States. Up to 25% of the cancers will be diagnosed when they are invasive or have spread, which lowers the long term survival rate markedly.

Now, researchers at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston published new data which shows that a new non-invasive urine test is perhaps part of the new gold standard for detecting bladder cancer. It's called the NMP22 Bladderchek. The new bladder cancer test picks up a protein produced only by bladder cancer cells. The researchers found the test was more than three times as accurate as getting cell samples using cystoscopy, when the bladder is visualized using a scope passed into it through the urethra or urine tube. It takes about a week for results of the cell samples taken to come back. With the new bladder cancer test, it takes only an hour.

The researchers found that combining cystoscopy with the NMP22 test detected 93.7% of cancers, compared with 88.6% with an initial cystoscopy alone. Another advantage: the test eliminates the need to perform the cystoscopy procedure twice on the same patient i.e. once to diagnose the cancer, and the second time to remove it.

Now, it only has to be done to remove the cancer. Experts warn, though, this test should be used along with the other tests to improve on the accuracy, because in the end, when performed alone, it still misses 45% of cancers. Dr. Benjamin Lee, a urologist at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, says, if used with the other test, it's potentially a terrific weapon against the risk of bladder cancer. "At this point until larger number of research studies have been performed, still the gold standard would include a cystoscopy and a urinscitology. But the results are very encouraging. In the future as we get larger and larger data and can look at this in a prospective fashion that it may become an added weapon in the war against bladder cancer." says Dr. Lee. And hopefully, this new bladder cancer test will lead the way to even better tests and markers for this disease.

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