| Health / Health News |
‘Pill on a string’ test to transform oesophageal cancer diagnosis
The test, which can be carried out by a nurse in a GP surgery, is also better at picking up abnormal cells and potentially early-stage cancer.
Cytosponge. Photo: Cancer Research UK
Barrett’s oesophagus is a condition that can lead to oesophageal cancer in a small number of people. It’s usually diagnosed in hospital by endoscopy – passing a camera down into the stomach – following a GP referral for longstanding heartburn symptoms.
The Cytosponge test, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, is a small pill with a thread attached that the patient swallows, which expands into a small sponge when it reaches the stomach. This is quickly pulled back up the throat by a nurse, collecting cells from the oesophagus for analysis using a laboratory marker called TFF3.
The pill is a quick, simple and well tolerated test that can be performed in a GP surgery and helps tell doctors who needs an endoscopy. This can spare many people from having potentially unnecessary endoscopies.
In a study funded by Cancer Research UK, the researchers studied 13,222 participants who were randomly allocated to the sponge test or were looked after by a GP in the usual way. Over the course of a year, the odds of detecting Barrett’s were ten times higher in those offered the Cytosponge with 140 cases diagnosed compared to 13 in usual care.
In addition, the Cytosponge diagnosed five cases of early cancer (stage 1 and 2), whereas only one case of early cancer was detected in the GP group.
Alongside better detection, the test means cancer patients can benefit from less severe treatment options if their cancer is caught at a much earlier stage.
Professor Peter Sasieni, whose King’s College London team have been leading the clinical evaluation of the Cytosponge over the last decade, said: “The results of this trial exceeded my most optimistic expectations. Use of Professor Fitzgerald’s simple invention will hopefully lead to a significant reduction in the number of people dying from oesophageal cancer over the next 20 years. This trial found that both patients and staff were happy with the Cytosponge test and it is practical to consider rolling it out within the NHS.” (University of Cambridge)
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