ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 2, 1996 TAG: 9602030010
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Bladder cancer, a killer disease that is notoriously difficult to diagnose, can be detected with 95 percent accuracy by a new test that finds abnormal genetic material in the urine. The test could mean early treatment for thousands of patients, researchers say.
Dr. David Sidransky of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said the urine samples can be analyzed for the presence of abnormal DNA, which is a telltale sign of cancer. This DNA abnormality appears at a very early stage of tumors - a time in the disease process when there is a high likelihood of cure, he said.
``Under the current methods, we wait for symptoms to appear, and by that time, it often is too late,'' Sidransky said. ``The first symptom detected is usually blood in the urine, which often means there is an advanced tumor.''
A pilot study using the test detected 19 of 20 patients with bladder cancer, the researchers report in a study to be published today in the journal Science. Current bladder cancer tests detected fewer than half of the patients with the disease.
Dr. Carlos Cordon-Cardo, a bladder cancer expert at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said development of the urine test for bladder cancer is very important in saving lives.
``Cancer cells from bladder are very difficult to identify under the microscope because they are so similar to normal cells,'' Cordon-Cardo said.
Currently, microscopic examination of cells from the bladder is the only way to confirm cancer, he said, but the technique ``is quite faulty, and this is a major problem.''
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