Screening of head and neck cancer patients using Raman spectroscopy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development of a head and neck cancer screening tool using Raman spectroscopy - A Pilot Study
IRAS ID
295643
Contact name
Vinod Prabhu
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Hywel Dda University Health Board
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 7 months, 31 days
Research summary
Head and neck cancer symptoms are often also seen in non-cancer cases, which means that only one in ten patients who are referred to hospital with suspected cancer, will be found to have cancer.
Raman spectroscopy is a technique that looks at how laser light and parts of the blood affect each other to create a unique signal (or ‘fingerprint’) that can help to detect cancer. Raman spectroscopy has been used to find out the ‘fingerprint’ of colorectal cancer in the blood of patients with colorectal cancer. Our pilot study aims to develop a similar blood test that uses this technique.
We will recruit 50 patients who have a confirmed head and neck cancer diagnosis and 50 patients who have head and neck cancer symptoms but are found not to have cancer, after hospital tests. We will take blood samples from these patients and analyse them using Raman spectroscopy to see if there is a unique ‘fingerprint’ specific for head and neck cancer patients.
REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/PR/1765
Date of REC Opinion
19 Jan 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion