An international team of scientists led by the Portuguese Hugo Santos, from Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL), has developed a more comfortable and less expensive method of monitoring bladder cancer, based on a urine analysis.
The method, which consists of analyzing proteins expressed in the urine of patients with bladder cancer, “allows us tounderstand how the tumor is evolving and, if necessary, adjust therapy,” he told the agency. Portuguese biochemist Hugo Santos, from the Faculty of Science and Technology (FCT) at UNL, where the work was carried out in collaboration with Hospital de São José, in Lisbon, and institutions in Spain and the United States.
According to Hugo Santos, coordinator of the work, this method, described in an article published in the specialist magazine Communications Medicineit’s more convenient for patients, less expensive for hospitals, and it’s fast and accurate.
Currently, the diagnosis and surveillance of bladder cancer is done through a cystoscopyan endoscopic examination of the bladder “in which a cystoscope” (optical instrument) is inserted “through the urethra that allows you to directly examine the inside of the bladder and, if necessary, remove the tumor,” explained Hugo Santos.
“Being a very invasive method, which requires anesthesia, it is also very expensive to follow a patient every three months”, he continued.
The technique studied makes it possible, according to the researcher, to “identify and quantify thousands of proteins in a single analysis” of a urine sample, allowing us to understand which biological markers are involved “in the development and progression of bladder cancer, identify potential therapeutic targets and to develop new treatment strategies”.
For the study, urine samples were collected from patients, with or without recurrence of bladder cancer, who were being followed up at Hospital de São José. Urine samples were collected before the patients underwent cystoscopy and the results obtained (whether or not the disease had progressed) were compared with the results of diagnosis and pathological laboratory analysis.
Cited in a statement from the FCT/UNL, Hugo Santos stressed that the patients were “successfully” monitored. “In this way, it is possible to follow the individual path of the disease and, therefore, identify which patients really need treatment. more invasive approaches like cystoscopy”, he underlined.
The researcher advanced Portuguese that his team intends to extend the tested method to other types of cancer, such as kidney and prostate cancer, and is seeking financial support so that it can be used in clinics and hospitals.
The project, baptized with the designation Health2You, had the participation of researchers from the Medical Center of the University of Pittsburgh, in the United States, and from the universities of Vigo and Valladolid, both in Spain.
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