Home Health Screening for Bladder Cancer
According to the American Cancer Society there will be 68,810 new cases of badder cancer diagnosed in the U.S. in 2008. Bladder cancer affects an average of 1 in 27 men and 1 in 85 women.
Hematuria
Hematuria, blood in the urine, is one of the main signs of bladder cancer. The blood can be detected during a routine urinalysis or via urine dipsticks. The routine screening for hematuria is not currently recommended unless you have risk factors for bladder cancer. However, the key for successful treatment of bladder cancer is early detection so can home screening for bladder cancer be beneficial?
Home Screening for Bladder Cancer?
A study published, in 2006, in the journal Cancer, took a look at that exact issue. The investigators enrolled 1575 men at least 50 years of age or older. At the beginning of the study these men used urine dipsticks to screen their urine at home for blood. They would check their urine for 14 consecutive days and then repeat the process 9 months later. If a single screening tested positive for blood then the men received standard assessment for hematuria by the physicians. Of the men screened, 16.4% had urine test positive for blood and 8.1% were diagnosed with bladder cancer.
Bladder Cancer and Survival
These men diagnosed with bladder cancer were followed for 14 years to take a look at their outcomes. Interestingly, after 14 years, none of the men diagnosed with bladder cancer via the home screenings had died. However, this is in contrast to the death rate of 20.4% for men diagnosed with bladder cancer that did not undergo the screenings. The results of this study indicate that home screening for bladder cancer may be useful in preventing bladder cancer deaths. This may be even more evident in patients at high risk for bladder cancer.
