Use of the Nuclear Matrix Protein 22 BladderChek Test for the Detection of Primary and Recurrent Urothelial Carcinoma

To evaluate the performance of the nuclear matrix protein 22 (NMP22) BladderChek test in urothelial carcinoma (UC).

We retrospectively analyzed 1318 patients who performed the NMP22 BladderChek tests. Of them, 103 were primary UC patients, 90 were surgical treatment UC patients, and 1125 were benign disease patients. The performance of the NMP22 BladderChek test for the diagnosis of primary and recurrent UC was evaluated. Moreover, the performance of urine cytology and the NMP22 BladderChek test for the diagnosis of primary UC was compared in 90 available subjects including 48 primary UC patients and 42 benign disease patients.

The sensitivity and specificity of the NMP22 BladderChek test were 37.9% and 95.8%, respectively, for the diagnosis of primary UC (n = 1228). The corresponding parameters of the NMP22 BladderChek test were 31.0% and 88.5%, respectively, for the diagnosis of recurrent UC (n = 90). The sensitivity and specificity of urine cytology were 54.2% and 97.6%, respectively, for the diagnosis of primary UC (n = 90); the corresponding parameters of the NMP22 BladderChek test were 41.7% and 83.3%, respectively; the corresponding parameters of the two tests combination were 64.6% and 83.3%, respectively. There was a significant difference in the performance between the NMP22 BladderChek test and urine cytology or the combination of two tests (P = 0.017 and 0.001, respectively).

The NMP22 BladderChek test has a low sensitivity for detecting primary and recurrent UC. Urine cytology is superior to the NMP22 BladderChek test, and combined use of the two tests improves the sensitivity in the detection of primary UC.