Detecting Bladder Cancer Using the UroMark Test.

Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the urinary bladder is responsible for >12,000 new cases of cancer and >5,000 deaths per year in England and Wales. Most bladder cancers are non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and do not invade deeply at presentation, but 80% of tumours recur within 3 years. For muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), the 5 year survival is around 50%. Cystoscopy is the standard test for detection of bladder cancer along with imaging to assess the upper tracts and the common presenting symptom is haematuria. Cystoscopy is an invasive procedure and results in urinary infection in up to 5% of cases. Cystoscopy is performed under local anaesthetic and patients are required to attend hospital clinics for the test. About one in 10 patients who are investigated for haematuria will be found to have bladder cancer. Frequently, patients are not referred for investigation of haematuria at the time of first presentation and there is a delay in diagnosis of the disease. The early detection of bladder cancer by means of a non-invasive tumour marker test would impact on the management of the disease. There is an unmet need for a simple, non-invasive, highly sensitive and specific method for detecting bladder cancer.

This study will determine the accuracy of UroMark a high-throughput multiplex PCR test to detect bladder cancer in DNA from urine. The study will address the unmet clinical need to improve detection of bladder cancer. The rationale for the trial is based on proof of concept studies which provide compelling evidence that a panel of methylation markers can be applied to detect bladder cancer with high sensitivity and specificity. It will be also be possible to collect and store fractions of urine for assessment of other DNA related biomarkers as well as non-DNA assays for example cellular proteins, soluble biomarkers in urine supernatant and RNA transcripts in sediment cells. In this study we will compare the UroMark assay with established assays including urinary cytology, FISH as well as developing assays such as MCM5. In this proposal excess urine will be stored for these studies.

Inclusion criteria

• Participants must be over 18 years of age.
• Participants undergoing investigation for visible and non-visible haematuria.
• Able to give informed written consent.

Exclusion criteria

• Unwilling to have standard haematuria investigations.
• Unable to give informed consent.