Samara Scientists Improved Early Diagnostics of “Woman’s” Cancer

A new approach to early diagnostics of endometrial cancer was proposed by the researchers of Samara University as part of the research team. According to the results of the study, new method allows to accurately determine biomarkers of the disease in eight cases out of ten. The results were presented in the Journal of Biomedical Photonics & Engineering.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), adenocarcinoma of endometrium (renewed mucous layer of uterus) is the second most common gynecological oncological disease. Every twelfth malignant tumor found in women is endometrial cancer. The mortality rate of the disease in the world on average is two cases per 100,000 women, because in case of timely detection this type of cancer answers to a treatment.

Primary diagnostics is carried out using magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) of pelvic organs or hysteroscopy, and in case of detection of pathologies it is necessary to perform several biopsies, said specialists of Samara National Research University (Samara University).

The scientists of the University with the colleagues from the Institute for Solid State Physics and I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University proposed using a more sensitive method for early diagnostics not requiring intervention to the body’s tissues.

“We developed approach to analysis of blood plasma using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for differential diagnostics of endometrial cancer. In other areas of diagnostics this method has proven itself as highly sensitive in detection of molecular differences inherent to pathological conditions of tissues”, – clarified one of the authors of the development, Associate Professor of the Department of Laser and Biotechnical Systems of Samara University Dmitry Artemyev.

The specialist explained that in medical diagnostics specificity and irritability are the key indicators of accuracy of diagnostic study. Irritability shows in what percentage of cases we can detect the disease using the study if it is actually present at the moment. Specificity is the indicator of the ability of the study to correctly determine healthy people, that means those people who do not have the disease at the moment.

“Assessment of both parameters, values of which determine the diagnostics importance of the method, was carried out in our study. Accuracy of diagnostics for groups of healthy patients, patients with benign changes and group with oncological disease was 81 percent. It is worth noting separately that accuracy of detection of malignant disease comparing with the results of the second and the third groups (polyp and hyperplasia) was 91 percent”, – said Artemyev.

The future plans of the research team include increase of quantity of endometrial pathologies studied and quantity of samples studied in each group. Also, taking into consideration the prospects of the method, there are plans to study the diseases of other localizations, in fact, improving the quality of diagnostics and early detection of pathology is often the key to successful treatment, the scientists added.

Source: ria.ru