Martin Widschwendter

The Resolve Study - Diagnosing Womb Cancer

We have developed a womb cancer detection test, WID-qEC, which test accurately identifies women with womb cancer amongst all those with abnormal uterine bleeding. Womb cancer is the most common gynae cancer and the fourth most common cancer in women in the UK and mortality from the disease is twice as high amongst black women. Womb cancer’s key symptom is abnormal uterine bleeding, but only around 3% of those with bleeding actually have the disease. The current tests to detect womb cancer in a woman with abnormal uterine bleeding include a transvaginal ultrasound, which does not accurately distinguish cancer from non-cancerous causes and leads to the requirement for further invasive diagnostic tests in large numbers of women.

The WID-qEC test has been evaluated in nine case-control and cohort studies to date and shows improved performance compared with transvaginal ultrasound. The Resolve study supports the completion of vital ongoing studies of the WID-qEC in black women and an exploration of the acceptability of a self-taken vaginal swab amongst these women. We will also use cutting-edge spatial transcriptomics to explore the contribution of differing gene expression patterns to development of womb cancer in black women.