UBC®Rapid Is Sensitive in Detecting High-Grade Bladder Urothelial Carcinoma and Carcinoma in situ in Asian Population

OBJECTIVES: Bladder cancer is a common type of malignancy. UBC®Rapid is a novel immunoassay detecting urine cytokeratin 8/18 protein. Studies have shown good accuracy of UBC®Rapid in detecting bladder cancer. UBC®Rapid has however to date not been evaluated in Asian patients. We evaluated UBC®Rapid in detecting Asian bladder cancer, together with urine cytology. METHODS: In total, 112 patients were recruited from National University Hospital Singapore and 103 patients were included in this study, comprising 49 patients with bladder urothelial carcinoma (UC), 21 patients with bladder benign lesions, and 33 patients with normal bladder. All the bladder cancer and benign lesions were confirmed by histology. Voided urine was collected for UBC®Rapid test. The results were compared with urine cytology. RESULTS: The bladder UC group had remarkably higher UBC®Rapid value than the control groups. The sensitivity, specificity, positive, and negative predictive value of UBC®Rapid in detecting bladder UC were 53%, 85.5%, 76.5%, and 66.8%, respectively. Those of urine cytology were 40.8%, 96.3%, 90.9%, and 64.2%, respectively. Adding UBC®Rapid to urine cytology increased sensitivity to 57.1% but decreased specificity to 81.8%. UBC®Rapid was sensitive in detecting high-grade bladder UC (61.1%) and carcinoma in situ (CIS) (72.7%), as compared to urine cytology for bladder UC (55.6%) and CIS (54.5%), respectively. CONCLUSION: UBC®Rapid is sensitive in detecting high-grade bladder UC and CIS in Asian population. It may be useful as an adjunct test to achieve better detection of bladder cancer.