Development of Smartphone Bladder Cancer Early Diagnosis Kit...Close to 90% accuracy
Jul 30, 2025
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It is considered an innovative technology that can diagnose bladder cancer early with only urine samples without invasive tests, and is receiving great attention from international academia, such as being selected as a cover paper for Nature Biomedical Engineering. In particular, this study is a result of the clinical brokerage research support program of KIST and Korea University Medical School, and is attracting attention as a successful example of multicenter cooperation.
Bladder cancer has a high cure rate, with a 5-year survival rate of 95% for early detection, but it is a difficult and fatal disease to manage, with a recurrence rate of 70%. In particular, if the diagnosis is delayed, the entire bladder is removed, leading to a decrease in the patient's quality of life, such as making an artificial bladder or wearing a urine bag. In addition, conventional cystoscopy is highly accurate, but the limitations of invasive testing are pain and infection risks, and repeated testing is difficult. For simple examination, urine-based diagnostic methods existed before, but practical diagnosis was limited due to low sensitivity.
The Buoyancy-lifted bio-interference orthogonal organogel messenger developed in this study is a diagnostic kit that can detect biomarkers without the need to pretreat urine.
The research team produced a hydrogel film that can detect biomarkers of bladder cancer by enzymatic reaction. A signal carrier floating above the water by buoyancy was inserted inside the film, and the signal was designed only in the oil layer by using the separation of layers of water and oil. These techniques have solved the problem of impurities such as hematuria interfering with signals, and can be diagnosed with high accuracy until early bladder cancer.
The research team evaluated the diagnostic kits on 60 bladder cancer patients, 20 urological disease patients, and 25 normal people who were treated at Korea University Anam Hospital's urology department. The results showed that the BLOOM system had a sensitivity of 88.8% and a specificity of 88.9%, far exceeding the sensitivity of 20% of the existing commercially available kits. In particular, early bladder cancer, which was difficult with the existing diagnostic method, could be diagnosed with the same accuracy.
Professor Seokho Kang said, `Campaign cancer is a disease with a high recurrence rate and a significant decline in prognosis and quality of life if diagnosis is delayed.' `This diagnostic technology is expected to play an important role in helping patients receive better treatment by detecting bladder cancer early.' Professor Kang added, "Especially, it will help to achieve universal quality improvement of medical care because it can be used with high accuracy while securing patient safety even in medical institutions with low proficiency in invasive biopsy or lack of infrastructure."
"The BLOOM system is an innovative technology designed to accurately detect biomarkers while solving problems with urine impurities such as hematuria," Dr. Young-do Jung said. "It presents a new technological direction to overcome the limitations of existing urine diagnostics and develop it.'
The study is receiving positive reviews due to the high clinical effect and commercialization potential of early diagnosis technology of bladder cancer on patients. In fact, the research team is planning to accelerate commercialization by preparing a bio-company start-up based on this technology and developing mass production and uniform inspection methods.
In addition, research is continuing to diversify usability with mass rapid diagnosis methods and diagnostic methods that can be easily used at home, and efforts are being made to realize patient-centered medical care as a technology. The results of this study are expected to speed up detection and improve the prognosis and quality of life of patients by diagnosing bladder cancer more simply and quickly.
On the other hand, this study was conducted as a KIST major project and research foundation project (2023R1A2C100438911) with the support of the Ministry of Science and ICT, and was conducted as a clinical brokerage research support program for KIST and Korea University Medical School.
The research results were published as a cover paper in the July issue of Nature Biomedical Engineering (IF 27.7, 0.4% in the JCR field) under the title of 'Diagnosis of early-stage bladder capacitor via unprocessed urine samples of care'.
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
