Many MindedReading RNA in urine to find bladder cancer without a scope
A research team has published a proof-of-concept urine test for bladder cancer in Nature Medicine, dated October 2. The lab behind it is led by Stanford oncologist Maximilian Diehn. Tested on samples from 515 cancer patients and healthy people, it identified 95 of every 100 people who had bladder cancer, including early-stage disease. It also returned information on tumor type and the risk of recurrence.
Most cancer liquid biopsies hunt for tumor-shed DNA in blood. This test reads RNA in urine instead. RNA is less stable than DNA, but it shows which genes are active, so it hints at what a cancer is doing at a given moment. The same group earlier built a method for analyzing RNA in blood, published in Nature in 2025, and used it to read RNA signatures in lung cancer patients' samples. Early evidence suggests the urine approach can also detect kidney and prostate cancers, which are exposed to urine too. Diehn can envisage a multi-cancer urine test for the genitourinary tract.
The abundance case is about access. Bladder cancer is currently checked with cystoscopy, which is costly and uncomfortable. A sample-based test could make screening and follow-up monitoring cheaper and easier to repeat, and could bring it within reach of people far from specialist clinics.
The caveats are large. The technology is described as in its infancy, and Diehn says it is not yet known whether RNA-based testing will be useful for screening. Much work remains before clinics could use it. The reporting gives a sensitivity figure but no specificity, and no breakdown of how many samples came from patients versus healthy people. Watch for larger validation studies that report false-positive rates.
Source: Science News