Point-of-Care Tests for Bladder Cancer: The Influencing Role of Hematuria

An ensemble approach of urine sediment image analysis and NMP22 test for detection of bladder cancer cells

Background

Bladder cancer is the eighth most common cancer and the second most common urological cancer in Korean males. Current diagnostic tools for bladder cancer include cystoscopy (an upper tract study), urine cytology, and nuclear matrix protein 22 (NMP22) test. In this study, we evaluated the detection rate of atypical/malignant urothelial cells in urinary sediment images when flagged for positive NMP22 test.

Methods

NMP22 was measured by NMP22 BladderChek Test (Abbott Laboratories) and urine chemical and sediment analysis were performed by fully automated cobas 6500 urine analyzer (Roche Diagnostics). Specimens that met the manual microscopic examination (MME) criteria were then subjected to an on‐screen review of images. We subsequently reviewed sediment images and examined under the microscopy for the flagged cases.

Results

Of the 1217 patients, 345 (28.3%) had positive NMP22 results, whereas 872 (71.7%) had negative results. Out of the positive results, 154 (12.7%) were positive and 191 (15.7%) weakly positive for NMP22. Screened review of flagged specimens (ie, positive NMP22 result) with sediment imaging analysis revealed that suspicious urothelial carcinoma cells were detected in only two cases (0.8%). In the NMP22 negative flagged cases, the suspicious neoplastic cells were not found.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that the NMP22 test should be added to the flagging criteria for MME to improve diagnostic accuracy. The combination of urine sediment imaging analysis and NMP22 test can significantly assist technicians in the review of specimens.

Impact of variant microscopic interpretation of the uCyt+ immunocytological urine test for the detection of bladder cancer

BACKGROUND

Urinary marker tests for bladder cancer (BC) detection and surveillance represent a desirable approach to diagnosis and follow-up. The SCIMEDX uCyt+ assay detects antigens expressed by BC cells (mucin glycoprotein and carcinoembryonic antigen) using green and red fluorescence and is interpreted according to specific manufacturer's recommendations. In the present study, we evaluated divergent approaches of numeric and morphological analysis of uCyt+ to generate a rationale for alternative test interpretation strategies.

METHODS

A total of 444 patients with hematuria and without history of BC underwent uCyt+ analysis, cystoscopy and histological examination of tissue biopsies. Beside positive cells according to the manufacturer's definition (definitely positive cells, DPC), (i) cells showing borderline character (borderline cells, BLC), and (ii) cells with staining present below defined border (subliminal cells, SLC) were included into the analytical algorithm. Different cut-off levels for cell counts (>0, ≥3, ≥5) were evaluated separately with regard to their diagnostic accuracy. Moreover, the influence of clinical factors on test results were evaluated.

RESULTS

Adding BLC at a cut-off of ≥3 cells resulted in Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.70 for green and 0.77 for red fluorescence, respectively. Adding SLC led to reduced AUC (0.62 and 0.73, respectively). Male gender was significantly associated with false positive results in the "best AUC" groups (P = .0101). No further correlations to clinical influencing factors were observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Adding microscopic BLC as test-positive and adjusting cut-off level for the interpretation of uCyt+ may improve assay performance independent of clinical factors.

Urinary UBC Rapid and NMP22 Test for Bladder Cancer Surveillance in Comparison to Urinary Cytology: Results from a Prospective Single-Center Study

Background: Non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) is associated with high rates of recurrence, resulting in frequent follow-up cystoscopies. We evaluated the use of two point-of-care tests - the nuclear matrix protein 22 (NMP22) and urinary bladder cancer antigen (UBC) Rapid - compared to routine follow-up in patients with a previous history of NMIBC. Methods: 31 patients with cystoscopy-verified active bladder cancer, and 44 follow-up patients without disease as confirmed by cystoscopy were prospectively enrolled. All urine samples were analyzed by voided urine and bladder washing cytology, NMP22 and UBC rapid test (qualitatively and quantitatively). The best cutoff (highest Youden index; ≥6.7 ng/ml) for the quantitative UBC was determined by receiver operating characteristic curves. Results: Voided urine and barbotage cytology resulted in a sensitivity of 25.8% and 32.3%, and a specificity of 100% and 100%, while the NMP22 showed a sensitivity and specificity of 12.9% and 100%, respectively. The qualitative and quantitative UBC Rapid revealed a sensitivity of 61.3% and 64.5%, with a specificity of 77.3% and 81.8%. Barbotage cytology and qualitative UBC test proved to be the best dual combination with the highest overall sensitivity (77.4%). In contrast to barbotage cytology alone, sensitivity increased from 21.4% to 50% for detecting low-grade tumors, and from 43.8% to 100% for high-grade cancers, but reducing specificity from 100% to 77.3%. Conclusion: Compared to urinary cytology, UBC tests alone as well as UBC tests in combination with bladder washing cytology revealed higher sensitivities in detecting low- and high-grade tumors, but at the expense of a lower specificity. Thus, currently cystoscopy cannot be replaced by any of the evaluated methods.

Biomarkers for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer: Current tests and future promise

The search continues for optimal markers that can be utilized to improve bladder cancer detection and to predict disease recurrence. Although no single marker has yet replaced the need to perform cystoscopy and urine cytology, many tests have been evaluated and are being developed. In the future, these promising markers may be incorporated into standard practice to address the challenge of screening in addition to long-term surveillance of patients who have or are at risk for developing bladder cancer.

Urothelial Bladder Cancer Urinary Biomarkers

Urothelial bladder cancer is the fourth most prevalent male malignancy in the United States and also one of the ten most lethal. Superficial or non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer has a high rate of recurrence and can progress to muscle invasive disease. Conventional surveillance requires regular cystoscopy and is used often with urinary cytology. Unfortunately, the cystoscopy procedure is invasive for patients and costly for health care providers. Urinary biomarkers have the potential to improve bladder cancer diagnosis, the efficiency and also the cost-effectiveness of follow up. It may also be possible for urinary biomarkers to help prognosticate particularly for patients with high-grade bladder cancer who may want enhanced assessment of their risk of disease progression. In this review the important historical urinary biomarkers and the newly emerging biomarkers are discussed. As will be presented, although many of the tests have good performance characteristics, unfortunately no single test can fulfill all the roles currently provided by cystoscopy and cytology. It is likely that in the future, urinary biomarker testing will be used selectively in a personalized manner to try and improve prognostication or reduce the necessity for invasive cystoscopy in patients understanding the limits of the test.

Urinary EpCAM in urothelial bladder cancer patients: characterisation and evaluation of biomarker potential

BACKGROUND

Epithelial cell adhesion molecule is overexpressed in bladder tumours and released from bladder cancer cells in vitro. We test the hypotheses that urinary EpCAM could act as a biomarker for primary bladder cancer detection and risk stratification.

METHODS

Epithelial cell adhesion molecule was measured by ELISA in urine from 607 patients with primary bladder tumours and in urine from 53 non-cancer controls. Mann-Whitney tests and ROC analyses were used to determine statistical significance and discrimination between non-cancer controls and different stages and grades of disease. Multivariable modelling and Kaplan-Meier analyses were used to determine prognostic significance. The structure of urinary EpCAM was investigated by western blotting and mass spectrometry.

RESULTS

Urinary EpCAM levels increase with stage and grade of bladder cancer. Alongside grade and stage, elevated urinary EpCAM is an independent indicator of poor prognosis with a hazard ratio of 1.76 for bladder cancer-specific mortality. The soluble form of EpCAM in urine is the extracellular domain generated by cleavage between ala243 and gly244. Further studies are required to define the influence of other urinary tract malignancies and benign urological conditions on urinary EpCAM.

CONCLUSION

The extracellular domain of EpCAM is shed into urine by bladder tumours. Urinary EpCAM is a strong indicator of bladder cancer-specific survival, and may be useful within a multi-marker panel for disease detection or as a stand-alone marker to prioritise the investigation and treatment of patients. The mechanisms and effects of EpCAM cleavage in bladder cancer are worthy of further investigation, and may identify novel therapeutic targets.

Urinary biomarkers of bladder cancer: an update and future perspectives

Bladder cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide. Early detection of bladder tumors is critical for improved patient outcomes. The standard method for detection and surveillance of bladder tumors is cystoscopy with urinary cytology. Limitations of cystoscopy and urinary cytology have brought to light the need for more robust diagnostic assays. Ideally, such assays would be applicable to noninvasively obtained, voided urine, and be designed not only for diagnosis, but also for monitoring disease recurrence and response to therapy. Consequently, the development of a noninvasive urine-based assay would be of tremendous benefit to both patients and healthcare systems. This article reports some of the more prominent urine-based biomarkers reported in the literature. In addition, some new technologies that have been used to identify novel urinary biomarkers are highlighted.

Bladder cancer detection and monitoring: assessment of urine- and blood-based marker tests

Bladder cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide, but the treatment and management of this disease can be very successful if the disease is detected early. The development of molecular assays that could diagnose bladder cancer accurately, and at an early stage, would be a significant advance. Ideally, such molecular assays would be applicable to non-invasively obtained body fluids, and be designed not only for diagnosis but also for monitoring disease recurrence and response to treatment. In this article, we assess the performance of current diagnostic assays for bladder cancer and discuss some of the emerging biomarkers that could be developed to augment current bladder cancer detection strategies.

Combined application of cytology and molecular urine markers to improve the detection of urothelial carcinoma

BACKGROUND

The sensitivity of cytology for the detection of urothelial carcinoma (UC) is limited. Newer methods such as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), immunocytology (uCyt+), and protein markers have been developed to improve urine-based detection of UC. As only little is known regarding the combined application of these markers, we investigated whether combinations of 4 of the most broadly available tests (cytology, FISH, uCyt+, and nuclear matrix protein 22 [NMP22-ELISA]) may improve their diagnostic performance.

METHODS

The study was comprised of 808 patients who were suspected of having UC. All patients underwent urethrocystoscopy and upper urinary tract imaging and, in the case of positive findings, transurethral resection/biopsy. FISH, uCyt+, cytology, and NMP22-ELISA were performed in all patients.

RESULTS

UC was diagnosed in 115 patients (14.2%). Cytology and FISH were found to be the single tests with the best overall performance (area under the curve [AUC], 0.78/0.79). Combinations of 2, 3, and 4 markers were found to increase the AUC to various extents compared with the use of single markers. Combining cytology and FISH improved the sensitivity and performance (AUC, 0.83) compared with the single tests and identified 12 tumors that were not detected by cytology alone. The percentage of WHO grade 3/carcinoma in situ tumors not detected by cytology was reduced by 62.5% when FISH was performed in cytology-negative patients. The addition of uCyt+ as a third test further improved performance (AUC, 0.86), whereas the addition of NMP22-ELISA was not found to have any additional influence on the performance of the test combination.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of the current study support the combined use of urine markers and may form the basis of further studies investigating whether risk stratification based on urine marker combinations may individualize diagnostic algorithms and the surveillance of patients suspected of having UC.

Urinary BTA: indicator of bladder cancer or of hematuria

BACKGROUND

In this study, we investigated the influence of hematuria on the performance of the bladder tumor antigen (BTA) tests in a clinical cohort and in an experimental model.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Urine samples from a cohort of 126 subjects (64 with BCa and 62 controls) were analyzed by ELISA for hemoglobin and BTA. The experimental model involved the spiking of urine with blood from the same subject, and hemoglobin, red blood cell count, and BTA levels (BTA stat© and BTA-TRAK©). BTA-TRAK© analyses were also performed on serum samples obtained from 40 subjects (20 with confirmed with BCa).

RESULTS

In the 126 subject cohort, correlation between hemoglobin and BTA was 0.732. Of the 64 BCa samples, 72 % had a positive BTA assay, but 47 % of controls were also positive. The sensitivity and specificity of BTA to detect BCa was 72 and 53 %, respectively. Hematuria, measured by urinary hemoglobin, was a better indicator of BCa with 75 % sensitivity and 90 % specificity. Spiking of BTA-negative urine samples with as little as 1 μl/10 ml was enough to produce a positive BTA test. High levels of BTA were found equally in the serum of subjects with or without BCa (mean BTA levels 355,159 vs. 332,329 U/ml, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

Rather than detecting a bladder tumor antigen, urinary BTA assays may be measuring serum cFH introduced by bleeding, a common presenting factor in BCa subjects. The presence of hematuria in subjects without malignant disease can result in false-positive BTA assays.

Individual risk assessment in bladder cancer patients based on a multi-marker panel

PURPOSE

To investigate whether a combined application of urine cytology (CYT) and molecular markers for bladder cancer (BC) can predict tumor aggressiveness.

METHODS

The study comprised 2,113 patients who underwent urethrocystoscopy and transurethral resection of the bladder. CYT, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), immunocytology (uCyt+) and nuclear matrix protein 22 test (NMP22-ELISA) were performed. Results of the individual tests and of a multi-marker panel were correlated with pT-stages and tumor grades.

RESULTS

Five hundred and two of 2,113 (23.8 %) patients had BC. False-negative test rates of CYT (p < 0.001), FISH (p = 0.01) and NMP22-ELISA (p = 0.05) were lower in patients with muscle-invasive BC compared with patients with non-muscle-invasive BC. Furthermore, false-negative rates of CYT (p < 0.001), FISH (p = 0.0002) and NMP22-ELISA (p < 0.001) were lower in patients with G3/CIS compared with patients with G1-G2 BC. In patients with evidence of tumor in urethrocystoscopy, the presence of simultaneously positive CYT and NMP22 was associated with a 20-fold risk for G3/CIS (p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first study investigating the combined use of four urine markers in addition to cystoscopy to predict tumor aggressiveness. Our results indicate that combined application of urine markers as an adjunct to cystoscopy may facilitate identification of patients harboring high-grade tumors.

Influence of age on false positive rates of urine-based tumor markers

INTRODUCTION

Several influencing factors on false positive rates (FPRs) of urine-based tumor markers in the detection of urothelial cancer (UC) have been identified. We evaluated age as a possible influencing factor.

METHODS

Urinary cytology (Cyt), UroVysion (FISH), ImmunoCyt (uCyt+) and NMP22 were determined in 1,554 patients suspicious for UC of the bladder before cystoscopy and in case of cancer detection before TURB. Additionally, upper urinary tract imaging was performed. Maker sensitivity, specificity and FPRs were evaluated in the entire cohort and in subgroups divided by age into <50, ≥ 50-70 and ≥ 70 years. Contingency tables and the Cochrane Armitage tests were used for statistical comparisons.

RESULTS

UC was found in 377 and no UC in 1,177 (75 %) patients. A total of 336 patients were diagnosed with UC of the bladder and 41 with UC of the upper urinary tract. Overall sensitivity and specificity for Cyt were 82 and 82 %: for FISH, 73 and 79 % and for uCyt+, 79 and 75 %, respectively. For NMP22, regardless of the exclusion criteria they were 72 and 34 % and after exclusion of urinary tract infection (UTI) or prior to manipulation 46 and 86 %, respectively. Significantly higher FPRs were found with increasing age for Cyt (p = 0.001), a trend to higher FPRs for uCyt+ (p = 0.11) and almost no difference for FISH (p = 0.63). For NMP22, differences became significant after exclusion of patients with UTI or prior manipulation (p = 0.02).

CONCLUSIONS

The results of the present study give evidence that false positive rates of Cyt and NMP22 increase with age indicating that age should be respected for their correct interpretation.