January 17th, 2006

Bladder Cancer detection with a new easy in-office Urine Test

Matritech's NMP22 BladderChek

A report in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association told of an easy in-office urine test that can detect 99 percent of the tumors when used in conjunction with cystoscopy.

The $30 in-office urine test called the NMP22 BladderChek® manufactured by Matritech, who also funded the study at the University of Rochester Medical Center’s James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, looked at how accurate it was in the diagnosis of bladder cancer. The urine test is non-invasive compared with the cystoscopy which is a flexible scope to see inside the urethra and bladder. The cystoscopy by itself detects the bladder cancer 91 percent of the time, but when used with the urine test it is 99 percent accurate in diagnosis.

Messing and colleagues reported a year ago that NMP22 BladderChek Test was three times more effective than standard urine testing. The NMP22 BladderChek Test measures the level of NMP22, which is a type of protein in the urine. If the NMP22 is elevated, it is a sign of bladder cancer.

Edward M. Messing, M.D., Chair of Urology at the Medical Center and an author of the report said, “This test is an important tool for doctors – early detection of bladder cancers improves treatment options and patient outcomes. Delay of diagnosis of an aggressive bladder cancer even by a few months can affect prognosis.”

Researchers studied 668 patients that had a history of bladder cancer from 23 different locations in 9 states. The research was over a time period from September 2001 and February 2002. They found that of these patients, 103 had bladder cancer.

The urine test can be done at an doctor’s office and takes less than an hour to get a result. “This advances our ability to diagnose bladder cancers more easily and less expensively,” said Messing.

Bladder cancer affects over a half-million people in the United States and is the fifth most common malignancy. There will be 63,000 newly diagnosed cases each year. The sooner bladder cancer is detected, the better the chances of survival. This type of cancer will reoccur in as many as 90 percent of the treated patients.

There are several methods for identifying bladder cancer and doctors will usually use more than one test to diagnose. The NMP22 BladderCheck Test offers a quick and easy testing method to screen for bladder cancer.

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