Noninvasive Electromagnetic Detection of Bladder Cancer

Objectives. Normal and neoplastic human tissues have different electromagnetic properties. This study aimed to determine the diagnostic accuracy of noninvasive electromagnetic detection of bladder cancer (BC) by the tissue-resonance interaction method (TRIM-prob). Patients and Methods. Consecutive patients were referred for cystoscopy because of (i) microscopic or gross hematuria and/or irritative voiding symptoms and (ii) bladder ultrasounds and urinary cytology findings negative or just suspicious of malignancy. Patients were first submitted to TRIM-prob bladder scanning by a single investigator and then to cystoscopy by another investigator blind to TRIM-prob data. Results. In 125 evaluated patients cystoscopy was positive for BC in 47 and negative in the remaining 78; conversely, TRIM-prob bladder scanning was positive for BC in 53 and negative in 72. In particular, TRIM-prob scanning yielded 7 false positives and only one false negative; therefore, its overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy were 97.9%, 89.9%, 86.8%, 98.6%, and 93.6%, respectively. Conclusions. TRIM-prob bladder scanning was a simple and quite accurate method for non-invasive electromagnetic detection of BC. If the elevated positive and negative predictive values will be replicated in further well-designed studies, it could be used to screen asymptomatic patients at high risk of BC. 1. Introduction Bladder carcinoma (BC) is the most common malignancy of the urinary tract. In the United States, more than 70,000 new cases are diagnosed every year; one out of five patients dies of this disease [1]. Noninvasive diagnosis of BC relies on bladder ultrasounds (US) and urinary cytology, but, whenever these investigations are negative or just suspicious of malignancy, cystoscopy remains the “gold standard” diagnostic method [2]. Cystoscopy also remains the “gold standard” followup investigation in patients with nonmuscle-invasive BC; due to the high rate of disease recurrence, these patients are likely to undergo several cystoscopies during their life [2]. Unfortunately, cystoscopy is invasive, relatively expensive, and flexible instruments have reduced but have not eliminated patients’ discomfort; therefore, noninvasive diagnostic tests comparing well with cystoscopy findings would be extremely desirable. In the last decades, the search for noninvasive tests for the diagnosis and followup of BC has concentrated onto urinary molecular tumor markers. Though some of them, such as NMP22, UroVision, and ImmunoCyt, appear