EvidenceBladder & urothelial cancer

For someone offered the test, these are the numbers that describe what a result means in an NHS population: about 1 in 100 tests came back positive each year, between 46 and 58 in 100 positives were cancer, and a negative result left about 1 in 100 with an undetected cancer within the year. The test found between a quarter and a third of all cancers diagnosed in a screening round, and about half to two thirds of the 12 cancer types it was designed to find. Whether finding them this way reduces late-stage diagnoses is the primary question, and this paper says only that the answer was no; the primary-endpoint paper had not appeared on Europe PMC by 23 September 2026.

After bladder removal, a blood test can now tell who needs immunotherapy and who can safely be spared it. This is the model for MRD-guided adjuvant therapy across cancers: treat the blood-positive, watch the blood-negative.

Patients with high-risk bladder cancer confined to the lining whose disease has not responded to BCG now have a bladder-sparing option that clears the cancer in most cases, delivered through a simple outpatient procedure. It may allow many to avoid or defer cystectomy, a life-changing operation. Whether responses translate into avoided progression and cystectomy over the long term, and how it compares with cystectomy on survival, remain to be shown.

Almost every patient newly diagnosed with advanced bladder or urothelial cancer should now be offered enfortumab vedotin plus pembrolizumab rather than chemotherapy, with median survival extended from about 16 months to over two and a half years. Neuropathy and skin toxicity need monitoring and dose adjustment, and patients with severe diabetes or pre-existing neuropathy need care. Platinum chemotherapy remains an option for those who cannot receive the combination.

Patients fit enough for cisplatin whose bladder cancer has invaded the muscle wall should now be offered durvalumab with their pre-operative chemotherapy and for about a year after surgery, which improves the chance of cure without compromising the operation. The trial cannot say whether the adjuvant phase is necessary, or how to treat cisplatin-ineligible patients, for whom other trials are ongoing.

Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of cancer death, and quitting at any age helps, with the greatest gain from quitting young. Cessation support belongs in every cancer service, including lung screening programmes.