Fighting bladder cancer

In March a novel test for bladder cancer was launched at the Annual Meeting of the European Association of Urology

GALEAS Bladder is the result of a partnership between the University of Birmingham researchers and Nonacus, specialists in liquid biopsy cancer detection and screening.

“We are very excited to launch GALEAS Bladder. We are striving to develop a suite of meaningful non-invasive tools that can have real impact on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with suspected cancer. GALEAS Bladder represents the first in this pipeline, helping to improve patients’ lives and reducing the burden of cystoscopy on over stretched clinics.” says Chris Sale, CEO of Nonacus.

The test is completely non-invasive, using highly specialised technology to detect the presence of bladder cancer in urine. The test analyses samples for DNA from tumour cells by employing innovative liquid biopsy technology and a panel of biomarkers.

“Since 2009, Dr Douglas Ward and I have been working on various strategies to accurately and reliably detect bladder cancer from a urine sample.” says Professor Rik Bryan from the University of Birmingham’s Bladder Cancer Research Centre.

“The DNA-based genomic approaches that we have been developing over the last eight years, with funding from Cancer Research UK and support and expertise from Nonacus, have allowed us to do just that with a test that appears to rival cystoscopy with regard to sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of bladder cancer in patients being investigated for hematuria.” he adds.

The biomarker panel has been successfully identified in over six hundred patient samples from three UK based clinical cohorts, with high diagnostic accuracy across all stages of bladder cancer.

This non-invasive test presents a viable, reliable and cost e ective alternative to cystoscopy across the entire bladder cancer patient pathway, and can act as an e icient triage system for hematuria.

Further progress made towards the end of malaria

At the end of March, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan joined the growing list of malaria free countries

Caused by parasites spread by female mosquitoes, and irrigation systems, malaria kills more than six hundred thousand people per year. Although treatable, the disease still plagues large areas of the Southern Hemisphere, including most of Africa, Central and Southern America, Asia and the Middle East.