Home urine tests could detect breast cancer, endometriosis and PCOS

“Game-changing” home urine tests to detect early stage breast cancer are being developed in Wales, alongside similar work on endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome.

Researchers said they hope to have a prototype kit within the next year to detect early stage breast cancer using a lateral flow urine sample. Lateral flow tests are simple strip-based devices used during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A similar test is now also being explored for endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, which in the long term could help reduce diagnostic waiting times.

The developments form part of wider work on women’s health in Wales, with women’s health hubs being rolled out across all parts of the country.

The research is being led by Prof Luis Mur at Aberystwyth University, who said key changes could be identified in urine to detect breast cancer “with a high degree of accuracy” and that new at-home tests were being developed to complement existing diagnostic tools.

“We’ve found very important changes in urine to tell you’ve got breast cancer, and even [which] stage of breast cancer,” he said.

“We’re building little kits that are based on urine that actually allow you to go to your GP and have it done, or even do it at home.”

Mur said it could take about 18 months to develop the lateral flow prototypes, followed by a further three to five years of testing to confirm accuracy.

“We need to have 90 per cent accuracy or greater, at the moment we’ve got it, but we need to make sure we get that with the kit itself,” he said.

He added that researchers were now applying the same approach to detect endometriosis and PCOS, where “diagnoses are very poor and also very delayed”.

The breast cancer testing kits are among projects funded by the Welsh government’s £75m investment in women’s health research, as part of the women’s health plan.

Dr Helen Munro, clinical lead for women’s health in Wales, said one of the goals of the Women’s Health Research Centre was to bring research findings, such as the work at Aberystwyth University, into clinical practice “in a timely way”.

“Currently there’s evidence to suggest it takes 17 years for evidence to get into practice, Munro said.

“But what we’re doing in Wales is working really closely with our academic universities and health boards to shorten that gap.”

The 10-year women’s health plan in Wales, published in December 2024, also set out ambitions for women’s health hubs in each health board.

By the end of this month each health board will have at least one hub serving part of their community, though Munro said “each will look different”.

In west and mid Wales, Hywel Dda health board has split the region into seven GP clusters, each of which will have a women’s health service.

GPs in each cluster have been trained to provide menopause and contraceptive care and can take referrals from other surgeries, bringing specialist care closer to home.

“We’re aiming to see a reduction in referrals into secondary care, with women referred into the hub in a timelier fashion,” said Dana Scott, who is leading the women’s health plan for Hywel Dda.

Dr Lauren Thomas, a sexual health doctor who has been training GPs in more remote areas to fit coils and contraceptive implants, said ultrasound biopsies would also be available in each county.

“As a GP I see women wait months and months and months to see gynae [specialists] because obviously the secondary care service has to prioritise suspected cancer cases,” she said.

“Women are left with pelvic pain or [with] endometriosis waiting a long time for discussions, investigations and treatments that they could access in a community-based clinic, and hopefully we’ll be able to bring that to women moving forward.”

Munro said all hubs had been asked to deliver on three priority areas: menopause care, contraception and pelvic health.

Sarah Murphy MS, minister with responsibility for women’s health, said each health board was “starting from different places”.

She said: “They’re trying to fill in the gaps, breaking down the barriers for each of those locations and communities.

“But as we go forward there’ll be an evaluation and we’ll spread that good practice across Wales.”