A multiplex immunoassay for the non-invasive detection of bladder cancer

Urine based assays that can non-invasively detect bladder cancer (BCa) have the potential to reduce unnecessary and invasive procedures. The purpose of this study was to develop a multiplex immunoassay that can accurately and simultaneously monitor ten diagnostic urinary protein biomarkers for application as a non-invasive test for BCa detection.

A custom electrochemiluminescent multiplex assay was constructed (Meso Scale Diagnostics, LLC, Rockville, MD, USA) to detect the following urinary proteins; IL8, MMP9, MMP10, ANG, APOE, SDC1, A1AT, PAI1, CA9 and VEGFA. Voided urine samples from two cohorts were collected prior to cystoscopy and samples were analyzed blinded to the clinical status of the participants. Means (±SD) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were used to compare assay performance and to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the diagnostic signature.

Comparative diagnostic performance analyses revealed an AUROC value of 0.9258 for the multiplex assay and 0.9467 for the combination of the single-target ELISA assays (p = 0.625), so there was no loss of diagnostic utility for the MSD multiplex assay. Analysis of the independent 200-sample cohort using the multiplex assay achieved an overall diagnostic sensitivity of 0.85, specificity of 0.81, positive predictive value 0.82 and negative predictive value 0.84.

It is technically feasible to simultaneously monitor complex urinary diagnostic signatures in a single assay without loss of performance. The described protein-based assay has the potential to be developed for the non-invasive detection of BCa.