CS01
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Molecular analysis of cervical smear samples
IRAS ID
168110
Contact name
Elizabeth Moore
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
Ovarian cancer (OC) is the fifth most common cancer in women in the UK. Due to the non-specific symptoms of OC the disease tends to present late. 5-year survival rates are 43% overall but are over 90% for early stage tumours. Due to the current difficulties of early diagnosis of OC and poor outcome in patients diagnosed with late stage disease much work is currently being done to identify new biomarkers that can potentially be used to improve OC triage and can subsequently be used in population based screening for OC. DNA shed from ovarian tumours contains somatic mutations, which are highly specific biomarkers of cancer. It has recently been shown that tumour DNA and common somatic mutations can be detected in cervical smear samples and cervical mucous samples from patients with both endometrial and ovarian cancers. Routine cervical screening was introduced as a method of detecting premalignant changes that could progress to cervical cancer. However, a small number of routine cervical smear samples show glandular abnormalities which suggest possible endometrial or ovarian abnormalities. We propose to collect all routine cervical smear samples showing glandular abnormalities to look for a panel of somatic mutations know to be associated with endometrial and ovarian cancer. If such mutations could be detected via tumour DNA in cervical smear samples this could theoretically be utilised particularly in primary care as a minimally invasive method for ovarian cancer diagnosis and screening.
REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/0635
Date of REC Opinion
9 Apr 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion