The Drake Health Registry Study: findings from fifteen years of continuous bladder cancer screening.

BACKGROUND

The Drake Health Registry Study (DHRS) is an ongoing bladder cancer screening program initiated in 1986 due to workers' probable past exposure to the bladder carcinogen, beta-naphthylamine (BNA).

METHODS

At periodic screening visits, a health survey is administered and three screening tests are applied to a urine sample, urinalysis (UA), papanicolaou (PAP), and quantitative fluorescence image analysis (QFIA). Positive screens are eligible for a free bladder cystoscopy with random biopsies.

RESULTS

Forty of 51 persons eligible for diagnostic evaluation underwent cystoscopy. One person was diagnosed with carcinoma in situ, two with transitional cell papilloma, 14 with dysplasia, two of which developed transitional cell carcinoma; 26 had bladder abnormalities such as chronic inflammation, chronic cystitis, atypical changes, atypia, hyperplasia, or papillary clusters.

CONCLUSIONS

The DHRS continues to identify early stage bladder cancer and other abnormalities among workers exposed to BNA before 1981 and generates useful clinical, psycho-social, and epidemiologic data.