We have been working with North West Cancer Research, an independent charity committed to improving outcomes of people with cancer in their region. Together we are delighted to announce that we are funding Dr Kelechi Njoku, a senior clinical oncology specialty registrar and academic clinical lecturer from the University of Manchester, to develop a new, kinder, test to diagnose womb cancer. We will be funding Dr Njoku’s work with up to £120,000 each year for the next three years.
Currently in the UK, when someone has the ‘red flag’ symptom of womb cancer, abnormal bleeding, they are faced with a series of uncomfortable and invasive tests. These include transvaginal ultrasounds, hysteroscopy, and biopsies.
Dr Njoku and his team have found that they can use proteins in vaginal fluid to test for womb cancer- without any invasive techniques or discomfort- using a small device that is put into the vagina.
They have been working on using the proteins in the vaginal fluid (an area of research called proteomics), to detect certain proteins that are signs of womb cancer. So far in their studies this has worked really well, especially in postmenopausal women, detecting 95% of cancers!
Now their plan is to really put this technology to the test to 500 women who are either known to have womb cancer or are at a high risk of developing womb cancer. They want to find out from these women whether the test works as well as they hope, how the women find the test and if it will be cost effective to the NHS to use instead of the current methods.
A big thank you to all of our supporters who have enabled this Fellowship to happen.