A urine test that detects proteins given off by malignant growths can identify bladder cancer faster and perhaps reduce the use of more invasive procedures, researchers said Tuesday.
The $30 test that can be completed in an office setting in less than an hour “advances our ability to diagnose bladder cancers more easily and less expensively,” said Edward Messing, a physician at the University of Rochester Medical Center, who was involved in the research.
The test, called the NMP22 BladderChek, was developed by Matritech Inc., which funded the study published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association. The test has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The study, issued by the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, covered tests on 1,331 patients in 10 states who were believed to be at higher risk for bladder cancer because of a history of smoking or other factors. It was done during 2001 and 2002.
It found the test to be about three times as effective as a visual bladder inspection, which is done by passing a thin, lighted scope through the urethra under local anesthesia. It usually takes a week for lab results from such a procedure to come back.
The urine test could reduce the need to do the invasive urethral procedure twice, once for detection and a second time in the operating room to remove tumors, the study said.
With the urine test, “we would know the cancer cells exist. Then we could schedule the (scope) procedure under anesthesia to remove the tumors in the operating room,” Messing said.
Bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the United States, but the five-year survival rate is 95 percent if the malignancy is detected early.