Urine test picks up more than nine in ten bladder cancers, Birmingham study finds

A urine test developed from research at the University of Birmingham picked up more than nine in ten bladder cancers in a large study of NHS patients, raising hopes of a simpler way to decide who needs an invasive examination.

The study, led by the University of Birmingham and the company Nonacus, followed 964 patients referred urgently to seven NHS urology departments. The GALEAS Bladder test, which looks for genetic traces of cancer in a urine sample, detected 71 of the 77 cancers found, or 92.2 per cent.

Every aggressive cancer detected

The results, published in the journal European Urology Oncology, were strongest for the most serious disease. The test detected all 17 muscle-invasive bladder cancers and 35 of the 36 high-grade cancers diagnosed during the study.

A negative result was associated with a 99.3 per cent probability of not having bladder cancer. For the 30 per cent of patients who had blood in their urine that could not be seen with the naked eye, the test identified every cancer.

Helping decide who needs a camera test

At the moment, patients with suspected bladder cancer usually need a cystoscopy, in which a camera is passed into the bladder. The researchers say the urine test could help clinicians decide which patients need that procedure urgently and which can safely wait.

"This prospective study shows that the very promising early performance has now been reproduced across multiple NHS centres and in a large real-world patient population," said Professor Richard Bryan, Director of the University of Birmingham's Bladder Cancer Research Centre.

He said the team had spent many years developing the science behind detecting bladder cancer through DNA in urine, with support from Cancer Research UK and philanthropists, and that the results showed molecular urine testing "can be used now" to help clinicians.