The researchers believe that using the urine test in a haematuria clinic could reduce the number of patients requiring a cystoscopy by at least 45 per cent.

“The test has the potential to detect new cases of bladder cancer with high sensitivity and specificity, and could reduce reliance on cystoscopy in the haematuria clinic setting,” the researchers wrote in their paper, published in the European Urology Oncology journal.

Richard Bryan, the lead researcher, told The Telegraph: “Even though cystoscopy is good at detecting bladder cancer, it’s invasive and time consuming for patients and the NHS, so we need a better way to diagnose patients.

“In the future, our test could be an easier way to get people with bladder cancer diagnosed faster, and could mean that tens of thousands of cystoscopies on healthy patients can be avoided each year.”

The prototype will now be turned into a proper, easy-to-administer test and the researchers hope to run a clinical trial of its effectiveness and aim to ultimately get it used by the NHS.

Iain Foulkes, the executive director of research and innovation at Cancer Research UK, said: “These findings show that this urine test could help the NHS diagnose bladder cancer more easily. Early detection of cancer is key for improving patient outcomes and research like this could help identify the patients that need treatment soonest, while easing the pressures of diagnostic procedures on the NHS. 

“We look forward to seeing how the test performs in the next clinical trial.”