Clinical trial · Observational
Spectroscopy and Artificial Intelligence to Disrupt the Status Quo in Cervical Cancer Screening
Spectroscopy and Artificial Intelligence to Disrupt the Status Quo in Cervical Cancer
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
Cervical cancer kills one woman every two minutes, 90% of these women are from low- and middle-income countries. Newly developed testing using biofluids has proven successful in identifying disease markers in, for example, brain cancers and endometrial cancers. Early studies have revealed that this technology is also showing potential for gynaecological cancers using validated human papillomavirus (HPV) test specimens. Urine samples, more easily collected, may make screening more accessible and acceptable to women. Spectroscopy is a portable and relatively simple technology; results are instant, reproducible and reliable. Once we confirm that spectroscopy has the ability to identify potential CIN 2+ by detecting HPV in urine, the test can be miniaturized and adapted to a point of care test. This will be more economical and logistically simpler than what is currently available; no consumables and pre-processing of samples are required. Women with abnormal cervical screening and women with normal screening as controls will be recruited, cervical and urine samples will be obtained. These will be tested for HPV DNA using standard methods and also by spectroscopy for HPV. These spectroscopy signals will be analyzed using artificial intelligence. The results will be compared to tissue samples obtained at colposcopy. This will allow evaluation of the new spectroscopy test. This preliminary study aims to prove the concept the spectroscopy as a simple, affordable screen can be used to radically change cervical cancer screening. Enabling a test that has point of care capabilities has huge implications for women in developed and more significantly in low-and middle-income countries, where cervical cytology and HPV testing have significant logistical problems. A non-invasive test will be preferred by many women. We believe spectroscopy will disrupt the status quo of 'no screening' in the low and middle income countries (LMICs), accelerate elimination of cervical cancer, and thus avert 15 million deaths in next 50 years.
Conditions
Conditions (2)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cervical Cancer | Malignant Cervical Neoplasm | CURATED_EXACT | 0.92 |
| HPV | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (1)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spectoscropy testing of urine specimen | Diagnostic Test | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- label
- Intervention
- description
- Women seen at the colposcopy clinic at Nova Scotia Health in Gynaecology-Oncology because of an abnormal cervical screen lab report
- interventionNames
- Diagnostic Test: Spectoscropy testing of urine specimen
- label
- Control
- description
- Women seen at the General Gynaecology Clinic and the Izaak Walton Killam (IWK) Health Centre with a normal cervical screen lab report
Primary outcomes (1)
- measure
- Investigate the ability of spectroscopy to detect high risk HPV in urine
- timeFrame
- 18 months
- description
- Confirm detection of HPV in urine using a new technique with I R Spectroscopy
Secondary outcomes (2)
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- Female
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Women undergoing standard HPV screening at the IWK Health Centre and Nova Scotia Health in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Exclusion Criteria: \-
References
Publications (11)
- BACKGROUNDParaskevaidi M, Morais CLM, Lima KMG, Snowden JS, Saxon JA, Richardson AMT, Jones M, Mann DMA, Allsop D, Martin-Hirsch PL, Martin FL. Differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease using spectrochemical analysis of blood. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Sep 19;114(38):E7929-E7938. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1701517114. Epub 2017 Sep 5. PMID 28874525
- BACKGROUNDSargent A, Fletcher S, Bray K, Kitchener HC, Crosbie EJ. Cross-sectional study of HPV testing in self-sampled urine and comparison with matched vaginal and cervical samples in women attending colposcopy for the management of abnormal cervical screening. BMJ Open. 2019 Apr 29;9(4):e025388. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025388. PMID 31036707
- BACKGROUNDPathak N, Dodds J, Zamora J, Khan K. Accuracy of urinary human papillomavirus testing for presence of cervical HPV: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ. 2014 Sep 16;349:g5264. doi: 10.1136/bmj.g5264. PMID 25232064
- BACKGROUNDOgilvie GS, van Niekerk D, Krajden M, Smith LW, Cook D, Gondara L, Ceballos K, Quinlan D, Lee M, Martin RE, Gentile L, Peacock S, Stuart GCE, Franco EL, Coldman AJ. Effect of Screening With Primary Cervical HPV Testing vs Cytology Testing on High-grade Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia at 48 Months: The HPV FOCAL Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2018 Jul 3;320(1):43-52. doi: 10.1001/jama.2018.7464. PMID 29971397
- BACKGROUNDMayrand MH, Duarte-Franco E, Rodrigues I, Walter SD, Hanley J, Ferenczy A, Ratnam S, Coutlee F, Franco EL; Canadian Cervical Cancer Screening Trial Study Group. Human papillomavirus DNA versus Papanicolaou screening tests for cervical cancer. N Engl J Med. 2007 Oct 18;357(16):1579-88. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa071430. PMID 17942871
- BACKGROUNDJackson R, Wang L, Jembere N, Murphy J, Kupets R. Why Do Women Get Cervical Cancer in an Organized Screening Program in Canada? J Low Genit Tract Dis. 2019 Jan;23(1):1-6. doi: 10.1097/LGT.0000000000000450.