The WID-qEC test successfully identified 91% of womb cancer cases.
Researchers from University College London (UCL) and the University of Innsbruck have revealed that a new test to detect womb cancer could prevent 87% of women from needing an invasive diagnostic procedure.
The new test could accelerate and simplify the diagnosis of womb cancer or rule the condition out as a cause of symptoms.
Published in The Lancet Oncology and funded by the Eve Appeal, the European Research Council and Land Tirol, the WID-qEC test took samples from 400 peri- and post-menopausal women being investigated at the UCL hospital gynaecological rapid access clinic with abnormal vaginal bleeding, which identified 12 women with womb cancer.
WID-qEC searches for DNA methylation ‘tags’ to identify DNA from cancer cells to determine whether cancer is present or not in the womb.
Patients in the UK with abnormal vaginal bleeding are currently offered a transvaginal ultrasound, a scanner probe inserted into the vagina to visualise the inside of the womb, or other techniques to identify thickened womb lining (endometrium) prior to a biopsy.
To collect the biopsy, a hysteroscopy, an invasive and sometimes painful process using a narrow telescope with a camera that enters the womb, is performed, followed by a biopsy.
After performing 603 imaging tests, researchers found that 40% of patients needed more than one imaging test to decide their next steps and 75 women without cancer needed a follow-up with a surgical diagnostic procedure following endometrial thickness measurements.
The WID-qEC test identified 91% of womb cancer cases and identified positive test results in only ten women without cancer.
Professor Martin Widschwendter from the UCL EGA Institute for Women’s Health and the University of Innsbruck said: “The WID-qEC test… significantly reduces the complexity of the pathway which women, presenting with abnormal bleeding, currently have to undergo.
“The test will be commercially available in Austria and Switzerland from early 2024 and [the team] are actively working towards commercialisation in other countries including the UK in the coming months.”
