EVALUATION OF URINARY BIOMARKERS FOR THE EARLY DETECTION OF BLADDER CANCER

Abstract

Background: Bladder cancer is one of the most common cancers characterized by high rates of tumor recurrence throughout the patient’s life. Urine biomarkers detect the disease in its early stages to enhance patient prognosis, lower mortality and lessen expensive procedures such as cystoscopy. Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to assess the performance of the biomarkers within urine for the early diagnosis of bladder cancer and compare the results with conventional approaches. Study design: A Cross Sectional study Place and duration of study. Department of General Surgery Ziauddin University Hospital from jan 2021 to dec 2021 Methods: A total of 150 patients, 90 cases with bladder cancer and 60 controls were assessed. NMP22, UroVysion, and BLCA-4 were utilized in the urinary samples with biomarkers. Diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of each of the markers were calculated using the test results. Quantitative descriptive data was used in statistical comparison where standard deviation (SD) and p-value were used to test the significance of the findings. Results: The urinary biomarkers demonstrated fairly inconsistent mean sensitivities and specificities for early detection. Detectivity of NMP22 was 82% (SD ± 4.5), of UroVysion 78% (SD ± 3.2), of BLCA-4 was 85% (SD ± 5.1). The sensitivity of the tests were at 75% (SD ± 3.8) for NMP22, 82% (SD ± 4.0) for UroVysion and 80% (SD ± 4.3) for BLCA-4. The p-values for all biomarkers regarding difference in performance compared with conventional approaches were <0.05, which revealed statistical difference. Conclusions: Several urinary markers, such as BLCA-4, have been also identified to provide the potential for early diagnosis of bladder cancer in humans. It is therefore clear that these non invasive procedures are effective, highly sensitive and specific investigations in place of cystoscopy. Additional big research trials using these deadlines still have to be conducted in order to determine their efficacy in clinical practice.