Raman Spectroscopy as a faecal screening test prior to colonoscopy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Faecal Screening tests prior to Colonoscopy using the UV-Raman Spectroscopy and Machine Learning Analysis: A pilot feasibility study
IRAS ID
361800
Contact name
Venkat Subramanian
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Colorectal cancer is the 3rd most common cancer with more than 40,000 cases diagnosed in the UK per annum. Bowel cancer is responsible for 16,600 deaths each year in the UK. Early-stage diagnosis is critical to improving survival rates, with stage 1 bowel cancer having a 90%+ survival rate compared to 10% for stage 4. In 2018, 4,000 patients were waiting longer than the 6-week target for colonoscopy. Patients with signficant bowel related symptoms considered to be a risk of having bowel cancer are referred by their General Practitioners under a 2-week wait rule for urgent colonoscopy. The NHS attempts to provide this test in > 90% of patients within 2 weeks. Despite increased patient referrals year on year, and the addition of faecal screening tests for occult blood or calprotectin, the detection of colorectal cancer is made in just 1% of such referrals and the majority of colonoscopies (90%) are entirely normal. This inefficient process increases the waiting lists and puts additional pressure on the NHS.
In order to efficiently screen for patients with serious pathology like colorectal cancer, colorectal polyps and inflammatory bowel disease we plan to develop a deep UV Raman based faecal screening test that can rapidly analyse faecal extracts to provide a snapshot of the proteins and metabolites.We hope to use this test to effciently identify patients at riks of having bowel cancer, colorectal polyps and inflammatory bowel disease in order to prioritize these patients for an urgent colonoscopy and reduce the waiting time for treatment and tests in these patient groups and reduce the pressure on the NHS waiting lists in the long term.REC name
South Central - Berkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/SC/0288
Date of REC Opinion
21 Aug 2025
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion