2023-04-24 19:59:11
MONTREAL — A test developed by researchers at the University of Sherbrooke could not only make it easier than ever to detect bladder cancer, but also to determine which patients should be treated first.
The results are so promising that the World Health Organization decided to participate in the project.
It is by the presence of biomarkers, and more specifically proteins, in a urine sample that the new test would determine the presence, or absence, of cancer.
“It’s like the rapid screening tests for COVID,” explained Professor François Michel Boisvert, from the Department of Immunology and Cell Biology at the University of Sherbrooke, whose team developed this test, among others. in collaboration with urologist Claudio Jeldres.
“We will see bars appear when it is positive or negative. So that’s what’s going to allow us to roll it out really easily across the population.”
The test would also make it possible to characterize the disease, ie to identify patients whose cancer requires priority intervention.
It was the availability and development of advanced technologies, such as mass spectrometry, that opened the door to the development of the new test, said Professor Boisvert.
“It’s a technology that is still quite new and that was not as efficient a few years ago,” he said. We weren’t able to identify enough different proteins to find the biomarkers that would work.”
The new test is able to detect “100% of cancers” and therefore has “better sensitivity” than those that had been developed so far, added the researcher, “which means that we may have more chances that the test will be accepted as a replacement for what is currently done in the clinic”.
Screening for bladder cancer is currently done by cystoscopy, a procedure that involves a specialist inserting a camera to examine the bladder. In the Sherbrooke region alone, said Mr. Boisvert, the waiting time for a cystoscopy is about two years.
The test could also save many lives in countries where cystoscopy is not available. This is why the World Health Organization offered its collaboration to the Sherbrooke institution in the hope of designing a test that can be used by all populations.
The effectiveness of the test has been demonstrated with a hundred patients in Estrie. It will now be validated with a thousand people from different regions of the globe.
The samples will be analyzed in partnership with the WHO, the University of Lyon and the University of Berlin. The study also benefits from European Council funding of approximately $1.5 million.
Bladder cancer is more common in men than in women. Approximately 12,000 people are diagnosed each year in Canada.
It is the fifth most common cancer in Canada. It is also the most expensive cancer to treat, due to a recurrence rate that fluctuates between 60% and 70%. Patients who have been diagnosed must also undergo cystoscopy every three months for the rest of their lives.
“We will reduce the costs a lot and it will become much easier to follow,” said Professor Boisvert.
The test could also greatly expand bladder cancer screening. One could, for example, envisage that all individuals aged 50 and over be screened every five years, he said.
Smoking is the main risk factor, but age and occupational exposure to certain chemicals are also involved. The most common symptom is the presence of blood in the urine.
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