Bladder cancer could be more readily spotted - and therefore cured - with a new urine assay that provides same-day results, according to a report in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

The test, which measures a protein calledNMP22, may be a useful addition to visual inspection of the bladder for diagnosing cancer, Dr. H. Barton Grossman, from the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and colleagues note.

“Studies in different patient populations are necessary to further define the role of this assay in patients with risk factors and symptoms suggestive of possible bladder cancer,” they add

The findings are based on a study of 1331 people with symptoms or a medical history that raises the risk of bladder cancer. Before undergoing bladder inspection via a cystoscope, each subject provided a urine sample for testing.

Seventy-nine patients were diagnosed with bladder cancer, the researchers report.

Using cystoscopy with biopsy as the ‘gold standard,’ the NMP22 assay detected 56 percent of these cancers.

It also picked up four malignancies not seen initially by cystoscope, the researchers report, so the two methods together are better than either alone.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical Association, February 16, 2005.