I learned today that my urine cytology test came back
negative for cancer cells.
When I called in to the Uro's office to follow up on the urine that I brought in to their office this time last week (of course, I had to be the one to initiate the call) I left a message on the answer machine asking for the "results of my NMP22 test."
Well, it turns out that it wasn't an NMP22 test, it was a urine cytology test, which is more sensitive for high grade cancer, but less sensitive for low grade cancer. Urine Cytology has to be sent away for testing, and NMP22 can be tested in the Uro's office.
I thought this information that I learned during the course of my day might be useful to share with my fellow warriors....
I found this at the ACS (American Cancer Society) web site, and it explains the difference in the different types of urine tests.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved 2 new urine tumor marker tests for finding recurrent bladder cancer after treatment. One test, BTA, looks for proteins in the urine that indicate the presence of recurrent cancer cells. The other test, NMP22, measures the level of a protein from the nucleus of the bladder cancer cells. Other new markers are being tested. These are called HA-HAase, CYFRA 21-1. Also an antibody to whole cells called Immunocyt is being tested.
The usual test for finding bladder cancer that has recurred locally is urine cytology (viewing cells from urine under the microscope). Urine cytology is very effective in finding high-grade bladder cancers, but will miss the majority of papillary urothelial neoplasms of low malignant potential, and some low-grade papillary bladder cancers.
Although these low-grade cancers are usually superficial and rarely life-threatening, a more sensitive test for low-grade cancers would be an important advance. The BTA and NMP22 tests are more sensitive than cytology in picking up low-grade bladder cancers (more sensitive means the tests miss fewer cancers).
tinyurl.com/6cmcdp 
