| |
Bladder Cancer
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
my personal edition > bladder cancer > news
E-Mail this DGNews to a colleague
DGNews
Most High-Risk Patients May Not Benefit From Bladder-Cancer Screenings
DALLAS -- July 16, 2009 -- A study published online in the Journal of Urology, sheds light on the challenges involved in identifying which high-risk population would benefit most from bladder-cancer screening.
Large-scale screening of people at high risk for developing invasive bladder cancer could result in earlier diagnosis and improved survival rates.
"At this time bladder cancer screening is not the standard of care," said senior author Yair Lotan, MD, Department of Urology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas. "Although progress has been made in diagnosis, those efforts have translated into minimal survival benefit. In order to get the most benefit from the added cost of screening, we need to identify the appropriate population to screen."
In the study researchers used a point-of-care urine-based test called NMP22 BladderChek to screen 1,502 subjects without symptoms who are at high risk for bladder cancer based on age, smoking history, and occupational exposure.
Those selected were aged over 50 years, had smoked for 10 years or more, or had worked for 15 years or more in a high-risk occupation, such as in the dye, petroleum or chemical industries. Participants with other conditions that might lead to false-positive tests were excluded from the study.
Of the 1,502 participants, 85 tested positive for proteins that indicate the possible presence of a bladder tumour; 69 of those agreed to undergo cystoscopy. Only 2, however, were found to have noninvasive bladder cancer. The majority of these participants had undergone urinalysis within 3 years of screening.
At the 1-year follow-up, 2 more were found to have cancer, and these patients were aged over 60 years and had more than 42 pack-years of smoking.
"We did expect to find more cases," said Dr. Lotan. "The significance is that even with high-risk patients, only a few had cancer. What that means is we need to find a higher-risk group either by increasing screening to over the age of 60 instead of 50 or looking at individuals with a longer smoking history."
SOURCE: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
All contents Copyright (c) 1995-2009 Doctor's Guide Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
|
