Can Online Search Enable Earlier Detection of Gynaecological Cancers?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Can Online Search Enable Earlier Detection of Gynaecological Cancers?
IRAS ID
278303
Contact name
Srdjan Saso
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Early cancer diagnosis is the key to ensure timely access to treatment, minimise spread and optimise outcomes. Ovarian cancer in particular is most commonly diagnosed at a late stage due to its vague clinical presentation. Despite a rising prevalence of ovarian and endometrial cancer, there is not currently an effective screening program in place to help identify those at risk.
Given the propensity to use web search engines to seek health information, evaluating a user’s search history could provide an invaluable insight into a user’s health status. Leveraging the vast amounts of data from google searches may provide a key insight into identifying women at risk or those with an early stage of ovarian and endometrial cancer.
Our objective is to develop an algorithm using web-search data with the capability of identifying patients at high risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer.
We propose to carry out a single centre, prospective cohort observational study of women presenting to gynaecology clinic at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital (QCCH), with a suspected gynaecological malignancy over a period of four years.
The ‘google search’ data in women with a diagnosis of endometrial/ovarian cancer (within the last twelve months) at QCCH will be accessed and downloaded for the two years prior to diagnosis, to determine if key patterns of symptoms/risk factors can be identified. Participants will also complete a symptom-based questionnaire.
Comparing the web search history to women presenting to QCCH with benign gynaecological conditions will delineate whether web data is able to provide sufficient, reliable information to be a sensitive and specific screening tool for the detection of early-stage gynaecological malignancy.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2
REC reference
20/NS/0063
Date of REC Opinion
31 Jul 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion