PROSPECT-PLEURA
Research type
Research Study
Full title
PROSPECT-PLEURA: Biomarker Discovery to Refine Diagnosis and Prognosis in Histologically Indeterminate Pleural Effusions
IRAS ID
366402
Contact name
Lucy Helen Jackson-Jones
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Lancaster University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
72537, CPMS Number
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
A pleural effusion is fluid that builds up between the lungs and chest wall. Many conditions can cause a pleural effusion, from curable chest infections to terminal cancers. As such, taking a sample of the pleural effusion and figuring out if cancer has caused it can be very important. Currently, the standard way to gauge if cancer is the cause of a pleural effusion hinges on looking at cells under a microscope. But it is challenging to distinguish between cancer and non-cancerous cells. Experts often cannot tell if its cancer or not, and instead non-committal terminology is often used. Patients may have to wait until the cause becomes more obvious, for example the cancer spreading.
Our study aims to improve the ability to diagnose cause of pleural effusions. We predict there are molecular signals in the fluid that will tell if an effusion is caused by cancer. We will ask patients to donate pleural effusion samples when they have it sampled as part of routine NHS care and then analyse these in a laboratory to see which, if any, molecular signals there are.
Then, once the cause of the effusion is known, we will collect health data on patients who donated their pleural effusions. We will match their health outcomes to all of the different molecular signals we analysed and see if any of them are good tests for determining the cause of the effusion. We can also see if any molecular signals give reliable information about how long a patient might live.
Scientists and doctors still don’t know exactly how all the cells in the pleura work together on a microscopic level. We will use the donated pleural effusion samples to better understand how cells in the pleura talk with each other, and how this changes when cancer develops.REC name
North West - Greater Manchester West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/NW/0141
Date of REC Opinion
13 May 2026
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion