Screening for bladder cancer

• A quick guide to what's on this page
• What we mean by screening
• Why there isn't a screening test for bladder cancer
• If you are at high risk

Screening means looking for early signs of a particular disease in 'healthy' people who do not have any symptoms. Screening cannot prevent cancer. It can only find it as early as possible. Before we can do screening for a particular type of cancer, we need an accurate test to use. The test must be reliable in picking up cancers that are there. And it must not give false positive results in people who do not have cancer.

At the moment there is no reliable screening test for bladder cancer. Doctors around the world are looking into whether testing for blood in the urine would be a reliable test. This would involve dipping a testing stick into a fresh sample of your urine. It is early days, but one study suggests that testing your own urine at home might be useful in picking up bladder cancer early. Further studies are needed to establish whether screening may be useful or not for people at higher than average risk.

Testing for blood in the urine would not be a useful screening test for the general population. Small amounts of blood in urine can be caused by other conditions apart from cancer (such as a urine infection or kidney problems).

Doctors are also looking at urine tests to diagnose bladder cancer. Such as the NMP22 test and the MCM5 test. These are currently being looked at as ways of improving the diagnosis of bladder cancer, rather than as screening tests. There is more about this research in the  bladder cancer research section.

If you think you are at high risk of bladder cancer, talk to your doctor. You may be able to have regular check ups. But it is very important to see your doctor if you develop any bladder symptoms, whether you think you are at high risk or not. This is the best way of finding bladder cancer in its earliest stages, when it is most treatable.