A HALF-HOUR scan could help bladder cancer patients be treated almost twice as fast, a groundbreaking study has found.
Using an MRI check to help tackle tumours — instead of invasive surgery — cut the time it took to start treatment from 14 weeks to just seven.
More than 10,000 people in the UK develop bladder cancer each year, making it the 11th most common type.
Normally, patients would go straight for an op to enable surgeons to target tumours or decide on the best treatment.
Scientists say this standard surgical treatment dates back more than 100 years.
But waits for surgery can be a month or more, while an MRI scan could take place in just two weeks.
The study also found scans were better for working out the correct care.
[quote credit=”Professor Rik Bryan” credit-meta=”University of Birmingham”]We think we can cut out a step to make things quicker and reduce side effects[/quote]And about 20 per cent of people ended up not needing the surgical procedure, which involves a tube the width of a finger being inserted through the urethra.
Overhauling it with scanners already used in every major NHS hospital could get patients cured faster and boost survival chances.
Study author Professor Rik Bryan, from the University of Birmingham, said: “I think this change is ready to go and it’s already starting to happen in the UK.
“The current diagnostic pathway is very prolonged and we don’t think it is to the advantage of the patient.
“For all other cancers you take a biopsy, then do some scans and then propose treatment.
“In the bladder we see something we don’t like then go straight in and try to remove as much of it as we can – it’s kind of the wrong way round.
“This new way is a win-win because the patients who need radical treatment get it much more quickly and it also means you’re doing fewer unnecessary operations, freeing up slots in the theatre.
“A similar change 10 years ago transformed prostate cancer diagnosis and the potential is there to do the same for bladder cancer.”
Study co-authoer Professor Nick James, of the Institute for Cancer Research in London, added: “MRI is also considerably cheaper than this surgery so we estimate that this will save money, as well as saving surgical theatre space and preventing unnecessary procedures.”
Simple change could help thousands
A study of 143 NHS patients tried using high-tech MRI scans to examine tumours after they were first spotted with standard camera checks.
The research, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found the average time to treatment for serious muscle-invasive bladder cancer fell from 98 days to 53 days.
Prof Bryan estimates the new system could help thousands of UK patients each year.
He added: “We think we can cut out a step to make things quicker and reduce side effects.
“Half an hour in a scanner can almost halve a patient’s time to treatment.
“Even if they end up having the same therapy we found they had it significantly quicker.
“Other evidence shows bladder cancer patients treated within three months of diagnosis have very significantly improved outcomes and this new approach brought the average to well below three months.
“The evidence speaks for itself.”
‘Paving the way to better treatment’
Dr Claire Bromley, of Cancer Research UK, said: “Survival for advanced cases of bladder cancer remains low.
“Starting treatment as soon as possible gives the best chance of success but delays may be holding up vital care.
“This trial demonstrated a faster, less invasive alternative to current procedures and is paving the way for patients to get the right treatment much sooner, which is critical for improving how we treat bladder cancer.”
[boxout headline=”What causes bladder cancer?” intro=”The exact causes are unknown, but there are a number of things that can increase your risk factor.”]Like with many cancers, bladder cancer appear to be caused by exposure to harmful substances, which lead to abnormal changes in the bladder’s cells over many years.
Tobacco smoke is a common cause and it’s estimated that more than one in three cases of bladder cancer are caused by smoking.
Contact with certain chemicals previously used in manufacturing is also known to cause bladder cancer.
However, these substances have since been banned.
