Noninvasive Detection of Bladder Cancer by Shallow-Depth Genome-Wide Bisulfite Sequencing of Urinary Cell-Free DNA for Methylation and Copy Number Profiling

Bladder cancer is the ninth most common cancer worldwide.  The current diagnosis and monitoring of bladder cancer is still heavily reliant on cystoscopy, an invasive procedure where the tumor is directly visualized.  However, a paper appearing in the July 2019 issue of Clinical Chemistry from Dr. Dennis Lo’s laboratory in Hong Kong reports that bladder cancer can be detected noninvasively in urinary cell-free DNA by methylomic and copy number analysis.  Such analyses could be used as a liquid biopsy to aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of bladder cancer.