Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI; Japanese researchers have developed a more accurate method that comes with high diagnostic power to screen against cervical cancer from mucus samples.
Cervical cancer has approximately 500,000 new cases diagnosed each year. But the number of people diagnosed with precursor lesions in the cervix — also known as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) — is 20 times higher.
Researchers from Fujita Health University aimed to identify biomarkers that could assist in the early detection of cervical cancer. Currently, the two most widely used screening procedures for these conditions are human papillomavirus (HPV) tests and cytology examinations. While cytology has rather low sensitivity for detecting CIN, HPV tests are highly sensitive. Yet HPV infections do not always lead to cervical lesions, resulting in poor specificity.
The new study, published in the journal Cancer Science, focussed on a series of compounds that showed abnormal expression in serum and cervical mucus samples in cervical cancer patients. These findings could potentially revolutionise disease prevention strategies, said the team.
“They initially looked to find how changes in local immunity are related to cervical cancer, and aimed to study all the currently known microRNAs (miRNAs) associated with the development and progression of cervical tumours,” said Professor Takuma Fujii.
