OPTIC - Optical Polyp Testing for In vivo Classification
Research type
Research Study
Full title
OPTIC - Optical Polyp Testing for In vivo Classification
IRAS ID
186652
Contact name
Ruth Nicholson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 31 days
Research summary
Polyps detected during a colonoscopy may range from benign to precancerous and cancerous. While experienced endoscopists can reliably recognise cancer the difference between benign and early-stage precancer is often ambiguous. The standard approach is to simply remove all polyps and analyse them in the histology lab. This means that many patients with benign polyps (40% of those screened) are unnecessarily exposed to risk of injury (bowel perforation and bleeding) during removal. Furthermore the NHS faces the significant cost of diagnosing this harmless colon tissue. If the clinician were able to accurately determine polyp type during endoscopy, without removal, then benign tissue could be left alone while potentially harmful tissue is removed.
A pilot study of a new endoscopic optical imaging probe (OPTIC), which analyses how different colours of light interact with tissue, is proposed. Previous research has indicated that these properties differ in benign and precancerous polyps. The probe is contained within a normal endoscope and uses white light and blue/violet laser light to illuminate the tissue. The reflected and fluorescent light emitted, along with normal colour pictures of the polyp surface, are measured and recorded to quantify specific characteristics of each type.
Patients attending endoscopy clinics at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust will be asked to allow the use of the OPTIC probe during their colonoscopy. If the clinician detects a polyp that he/she intends to remove then this will be analysed using OPTIC before removal. The histology results from the tissue sample will be recorded and correlated to the OPTIC probe measurements. The resulting library of optical data will be used to design software to automatically categorise unknown polyps based on the OPTIC signal. The accuracy of the technique will be compared to the clinicians’ visual assessments. The patients’ involvement in the study ceases after the colonoscopy.REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/1350
Date of REC Opinion
28 Sep 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion