'Game-changing' urine tests could detect breast cancer, endometriosis and PCOS

"Game-changing" tests are being developed that could detect breast cancers and endometriosis at home.

Researchers said that within the next year they hope to have a prototype kit to detect early stage breast cancer using a lateral flow urine sample.

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

Prof Luis Mur, from Aberystwyth University, said key changes can be identified in a urine sample to detect breast cancer "with a high degree of accuracy" and new at-home tests are being made 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 added that researchers were now using the same approach to detect endometriosis and PCOS, where "diagnoses are very poor and also very delayed".

The breast cancer testing kits are among a number of projects to have been given money from the Welsh government's £75m investment into women's health research, as part of the women's health plan.

Mur said it could take 18 months to develop the lateral flow prototypes, then between three to five years to further test them for accuracy.

"We need to have 90% accuracy or greater, at the moment we've got it, but we need to make sure we get that with the kit itself," he explained.

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 like that taking place at Aberystwyth University, to clinical practise "in a timely way".

"Currently there's evidence to suggest it takes 17 years for evidence to get into practice.

"But what we're doing in Wales is working really closely with our academic universities and health boards to shorten that gap," she said.

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 parts of the patch 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.

"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 explained that despite the hubs looking different in each health board, they had all 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".

"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."