DISCOVER v.1

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Detection of Symptomatic Colorectal cancer using Volatile biomarkers (DISCOVER)

• IRAS ID

  238903

• Contact name

  Nader Francis

• Contact email

  nader.francis@ydh.nhs.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Yeovil District Hospital

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 6 months, 31 days

• Research summary

  Bowel cancer is diagnosed in 40,000 people each year in the UK. Early detection and treatment of bowel cancer is important as it improves survival. This has led to a “fast-track” system to reduce waiting times and improve access to hospital tests. Deciding who to test is hard for GPs and hospital doctors because bowel symptoms are common and are not usually due to cancer. Not all people with a bowel cancer develop symptoms. Therefore, at present the majority of patients are required to undergo testing.
  An internal camera examination of the colon (colonoscopy) is the best way to look at the large bowel. This test is expensive, invasive, and can be uncomfortable. Strong laxatives are needed to prepare the bowel and there is a risk of unplanned admission to hospital and surgery. In the UK, 300,000 people a year are referred through the fast-track bowel system, but over 90% have normal results meaning they have undergone unpleasant testing that did not help them.
  It is now possible to look at the chemicals produced by normal bacteria that live in everybody’s colon, which can help diagnose bowel conditions. Bowel cancer alters this chemical “signature”. We propose to test the urine of 600 people over the age of 18, referred by their GP to the fast-track pathway. We aim to assess how useful urine chemical testing is for diagnosing bowel cancer. The study will take place in three UK NHS Trusts between 2018 and 2020. If the test works and shows which patients need further testing, and which can be safely reassured, we aim to perform a larger study to confirm the findings. The goal of this research is to safely reduce the number of patients undergoing unpleasant bowel tests without missing important diagnoses.

• REC name

  London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  18/LO/1005

• Date of REC Opinion

  1 Jun 2018

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion