New test could speed up the diagnosis of womb cancer

A ground-breaking new PCR test that identifies women with womb cancer from a sample taken from the cervix or vagina has been developed by researchers from UCL and the University of Innsbruck. The research, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology , reports that the test is more accurate than current methods and may work equally well on all women. It is hoped that the research will speed up the diagnosis of womb cancer and reduce the need for more invasive, and often painful, diagnostic procedures such as hysteroscopy. The new test, named the WID -qEC, was developed by Professor Martin Widschwendter (UCL EGA Institute of Women's Health, Universität Innsbruck, Karolinska Institutet) and his team, and examines three regions of DNA that show different levels of methylation , a type of modification 'on top' of the DNA, in those with or without cancer. DNA methylation levels are measured by PCR, which is relatively low-cost and used routinely in clinical diagnostic labs, for example in the detection of coronavirus. To assess the reliability of the test, researchers used 1,288 cervical screening samples from women both with and without womb cancer, collected by a large team of investigators across the UK and Europe. The test successfully identified all eight cases of womb cancer within a cohort of 63 women presenting with post-menopausal bleeding.