At Yorkshire Cancer Research, we fund world-leading research that helps save lives right here in Yorkshire. By looking at how we can best screen for bladder cancer, the YORKSURe trial is helping do just that. We are grateful for the generosity of people across the region whose support has made this important clinical trial possible.
Dr Kathryn Scott, Chief Executive at Yorkshire Cancer Research
18 October 2022
Thousands of people to receive self-testing kits in bladder health check study
The ‘YORKSURe’ trial, being supported by the Cancer Prevention Trials Unit at King’s College London, is investigating whether urine self-testing kits and community early detection clinics are an effective way of screening for bladder health problems including bladder cancer.
Thousands of people across Yorkshire will start receiving urine self-testing kits in the post as part of a pioneering urine screening trial funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research and co-ordinated by the King’s College London Cancer Prevention Trials Unit (CPTU).
The CPTU is co-ordinating the study led by Professor James Catto, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Professor and Professor in Urological Surgery at the University of Sheffield, with support from the CPTU’s Academic Director Professor Peter Sasieni.
The trial will evaluate how likely people are to return their kits and whether self-testing leads to earlier diagnosis and improved survival rates where bladder cancer is found.
The kits are being sent to 3,000 men across the region aged between 65 and 80. The trial will also offer kits to an additional 2,000 men and women taking part in a lung screening trial funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research to help determine whether urine screening can be embedded within community lung cancer screening programmes.
Bladder cancer is a particular problem in Yorkshire. Every year in Yorkshire, nearly 1,000 people are diagnosed with bladder cancer and more than 400 people die from it.
Incidence rates are higher in the region than in England as a whole, and death rates from bladder cancer are also higher than the England average in some parts of Yorkshire, such as Barnsley, East Riding of Yorkshire, Hull, Leeds, York and Wakefield.
People receiving the at-home kits, which are being provided by TestCard Ltd, will be asked to self-test their urine using a test strip which can detect traces of blood and other abnormalities. Those with a positive result will receive further urine testing and an ultrasound scan at a community early detection clinic.
If successful, findings from the YORKSURe trial will be used to inform future bladder cancer studies and could lead to a national screening programme.
King's CPTU that is coordinating the trial receives core funding from Cancer Research UK, but the trial-specific funding is exclusively from Yorkshire Cancer Research
The trial is supported by TestCard Ltd, InHealth, Sealed Envelope and iPlato Healthcare. Along with the diagnostic testing kits, TestCard Ltd are providing the YORKSURe trial mobile app and the results and data collection system for at home testing. iPlato Healthcare are providing the patient identification service via GP Practices. InHealth are providing mobile ultrasound scanning in the community early detection clinics. Sealed Envelope are providing a freephone data collection service.
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Academic Director of King's Clinical Trials Unit