The latest stage of Dunedin cancer diagnostic company Pacific Edge's development of a ''one stop shop'' for bladder cancer detection was launched yesterday.
The new Cxbladder Triage follows the first molecular diagnostic test, Cxbladder Detect, which will enable doctors to accurately segregate patients who present with haematuria (blood in the urine) but have a low probability of having bladder cancer, Pacific Edge chief executive David Darling said.
''Potentially, this will save many patients from undergoing an expensive and invasive investigation for bladder cancer,'' he said in a statement yesterday.
The Cxbladder Triage is already available in New Zealand and will be launched in the US early next year, where Cxbladder Detect has already gained regulatory approval and is being promoted.
''The launch of Cxbladder Triage takes us a step closer to our vision of a 'one-stop-shop' for bladder cancer detection and management,'' Mr Darling said.
Cxbladder Triage is a non-invasive laboratory test of a urine sample, used primarily to rule out the presence of bladder cancer quickly, while in some cases, Cxbladder Triage test results will show a need for more extensive testing.
Mr Darling said the easy use of the Cxbladder system and its ability to provide lab results from a small urine sample within a few working days offered immediate patient benefits.
In the US, the Southern California Permanente Medical Group, part of health provider Kaiser Permanente, which has more than nine million clients, will carry out a 2000 patient evaluation of Cxbladder Triage, to determine its effectiveness.
