For many of us, the first thing we do when something doesn’t feel right with our health is Google it or ask ChatGPT.

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It rarely takes more than a few minutes before we’ve convinced ourselves it could be cancer. The reason that’s so frightening is that, for a small proportion of the people searching, it will be cancer.

One of the most worrying symptoms to discover is blood in your urine. A quick search will tell you it can be caused by several things, including bladder cancer, an aggressive disease that can be fatal when found too late.

Around 320,000 people in the UK visit their GP each year with blood in their urine. Many more will put off making an appointment, either through embarrassment or in the hope that it will go away. For all of them, cancer is likely to be on their mind. The good news is that around 93% of people referred will find that they don’t have bladder cancer. The problem is that finding out which group you’re in can take weeks or even months.

The standard way of looking for bladder cancer has followed the same basic principle for more than 100 years. A camera on the end of a long tube is passed through the urethra and into the bladder. This hospital procedure, known as a cystoscopy, can be painful, embarrassing and time-consuming. It is also difficult for the NHS to provide enough of them.

Under the Faster Diagnosis Standard, 80% of people urgently referred........

© LBC