Simple urine test diagnoses bladder cancer 10 years before symptoms appear

A simple urine test could spot bladder cancer 10 years before symptoms appear by detecting genetic mutations. A major study found almost half of people who developed bladder cancer could be spotted a decade in advance by using the urine test. Bladder cancer is caused by a tumour developing in the lining of the bladder […]

A simple urine test could spot bladder cancer 10 years before symptoms appear by detecting genetic mutations.

A major study found almost half of people who developed bladder cancer could be spotted a decade in advance by using the urine test.

Bladder cancer is caused by a tumour developing in the lining of the bladder or the organ’s muscle. The cancer is more common in men and has a 10-year survival rate of about 50 per cent. Around half of the cases are considered preventable.

Symptoms of the disease include blood in the urine, needing to urinate more often or more urgently than normal and pelvic pain. However, unexpected weight loss and swelling of the legs can also be signs of the killer disease.

Detection of bladder cancer is usually very poor – with a quarter of cases in England diagnosed at a late stage of the disease. This slashes people’s survival rates – if the cancer is spotted at the earliest stage there is a 90 per cent chance of surviving five years, but if it is spotted late survival rate falls to 10 per cent.

The only way to diagnose the disease at the moment is an invasive cystoscopy – an unpleasant procedure in which a camera is sent into the bladder. And this is only done if someone complains of symptoms.

The new study, published in the Lancet EBioMedicine journal, was led by the World Health Organisation.

It involved 131 people in Iran, aged between 40 and 75 years, 30 of whom developed bladder cancer after a decade. Fourteen of the 30 (46 per cent) who developed bladder cancer could be spotted 10 years in advance by using the urine test.

The test looks for gene mutations called TERT in the DNA from urine. These mutations are frequently found in bladder cancer tumours.

The academics, from the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer in France as well as the University of Cambridge and several other universities, said the mutations offer a valuable opportunity for screening. Mail Online