Urine test detects brain tumors with high degree of accuracy

While a brain tumor might reveal itself through symptoms such as irregular headaches, nausea or impaired speech, often these symptoms don't appear until the disease is well advanced.

This makes early diagnosis tricky, though doing so could lead to far better outcomes for patients. Scientists at Japan's Nagoya University have demonstrated how this could be achieved through a simple urine test, which has shown high accuracy in early experiments.

Along with blood tests, urine tests are shaping as an exciting technology when it comes to non-invasive and efficient cancer diagnosis. By scanning these fluid samples for biomarkers that correlate with the disease, scientists have shown how they might be able to detect cancer long before the typical clinical symptoms appear. These studies have shown particular promise when it comes to cancers of the bladder, prostate, pancreas and even the lungs.

The Nagoya University team has sought to expand these possibilities to brain cancer, with help from genetic material called microRNA.

The scientists sought to exploit this by developing a novel device fitted with 100 million zinc oxide nanowires that was able extract vast amounts of microRNA from urine samples as small as a milliliter in volume. Samples were collected from patients with brain tumors and a control group of non-cancer patients, with the team's analysis revealing that many microRNAs derived from brain tumors could be found in the urine in stable condition.