Focus on: Bladder Cancer
What is Bladder Cancer?
Bladder cancer occurs where a growth of abnormal tissue, known as a tumour, develops in the bladder lining. In some case, the tumour spreads into the bladder muscle. If the cancer penetrates this muscle, it can spread to other parts of the body, usually through the lymphatic system. The most common symptom of bladder cancer is blood in the urine, which is usually painless known as haematuria.
The treatment options for bladder cancer largely depend upon how advanced the cancer is. Treatments usually differ between early, non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer, and more advanced muscle-invasive bladder cancer.
Bladder Cancer in the UK
Bladder cancer is not a rare cancer, it’s one of the ten most common cancers in the UK
Over 20,500 people in the UK are diagnosed each year, that’s 56 people every day, and 4.5% of all new cancer cases
Over 100,000 people are living with bladder cancer in the UK
Bladder cancer has a high mortality rate, around 50%, and diagnosis if often late especially in women
It affects all ages, both men and women, and has the highest reoccurrence rate of any known cancer – up to 80%
It is the only top 10 cancer where rates of prognosis are getting worse, and is the most expensive cancer for the NHS to treat.
How CCL can help with Bladder Cancer
We have a range of new tests available to help diagnose or manage bladder cancer. Never more needed than after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bladder Epicheck
Bladder EpiCheck provides patients and clinicians with a simple urine test to detect recurrence of bladder tumours. The test analyses subtle disease-specific changes in DNA methylation markers, allowing for the detection of 92%1 of the high-risk (non Ta-LG) cancers. High risk cancers2 are important to catch as they are aggressive and most likely to progress to invasive cancer if not treated immediately. Bladder EpiCheck demonstrated Negative Predictive Value (NPV) of 99%1 for high-risk cancer, meaning that when receiving a negative Bladder EpiCheck result, there is 99%1 chance that no high-risk cancer is present. Bladder EpiCheck is an objective molecular test meaning that it does not rely on human interpretation. The result is a clear positive/negative for presence of bladder cancer, with an additional numerical results between 0-100. Bladder EpiCheck can be used in a surveillance regimen to increase confidence in detection of recurrence and/or to reduce amount of cystoscopies.
Urothelial PDL1 testing sp142
Testing is available to clinicians in order to guide treatment options in immunotherapy.
How to access our tests
If you are a Health Care Professional, please contact us on +44 (0)1223 395 450 / info@camclinlabs.co.uk. If you are a patient, please refer your Health Care Professional to our website and ask them to get in touch. Please note that Cambridge Clinical Laboratories HCP services are only available through a professional healthcare provider.
Useful resources
(Sources – Action Bladder Cancer)