The Prevalence and Impact of Urinary Marker Testing in Patients with Bladder Cancer.

PURPOSE: Novel urinary tumor markers for bladder cancer may permit early detection and improved oncologic outcomes but data on use is limited. We sought to identify trends in the application of urinary markers and long-term outcomes of urinary tumor marker use in patients with bladder cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data from the SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results)-Medicare database from 2001 to 2011 were used to identify a cohort of 64,450 patients with bladder cancer who underwent urinary marker testing with UroVysion® fluorescence in situ hybridization, or the NMP22® or BTA Stat® test. We assessed the prevalence of urinary marker testing and urine cytology. Characteristics of patients who did and did not undergo urinary marker testing were analyzed by the chi-square test. Urinary marker testing predictors were analyzed with a multivariable logistic regression model and Cox proportional hazards were used to determine unadjusted cancer specific and overall mortality risks. RESULTS: The rate of urinary marker testing increased from 17.8% to a peak of 28.2% during the study years (p <0.0001). Predictors of marker use included female gender, younger age and lower Charlson score. Overall and cancer specific survival improved on Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards analyses with urinary marker testing. CONCLUSIONS: Increased urinary marker testing was documented over all stages and grades of bladder cancer, and in certain patient and provider variables. This increase may have contributed to improved overall and cancer specific survival. Additional investigation is necessary to further characterize this benefit.

The Clinical Utility of BTA TRAK, BTA stat, NMP22 and Urine Cytology in the Diagnosis of Bladder Cancer: A Comparative Study / 대한비뇨기과학회지

PURPOSE: Various tumor markers, developed recently for the diagnosis of bladder cancer, are reported to be superior to urine cytology in terms of their sensitivity and non-invasiveness. A prospective study was performed to evaluate the efficacies of BTA TRAK, BTA stat, NMP22 tests and urine cytology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between August 2001 and December 2001, 154 patients were involved in the study. Voided urine was used to perform BTA TRAK, BTA stat, NMP22 tests and cytology. The final diagnoses were pathologically proven transitional cell carcinoma (TCCa) of the bladder in 34 patients, gross or microscopic hematuria without detectable tumor in 27, history of TCCa without evidence of recurrence in 68 and benign urologic diseases in 25. RESULTS: The sensitivities of the BTA TRAK, BTA stat, NMP22 and urine cytology were 82.4, 79.4, 61.8 and 32.4%, respectively. The specificities were 75.8, 70.8, 95.8 and 92.5%, respectively. When the sensitivity was subdivided according to the tumor stage, grade and size, the bigger size yielded higher sensitivities in the NMP22 and BTA TRAK (p<0.01 and p=0.03, respectively). When the results of the urine cytology were combined with each of the other tests, the specificity was lower than each test alone for the BTA TRAK and BTA stat, while sensitivity and specificity were both higher than each test alone for the NMP22. CONCLUSIONS: The BTA TRAK, BTA stat and NMP22 tests are useful in overcoming the limitations of cystoscopy and cytology as the initial evaluation tools for patients where bladder cancer is suspected. In particular, the NMP22 may be more useful due to its enhanced specificity when combined with the urine cytology.