Unveiling the risk of developing cervical cancer in HPV-negatives through vaginal microbiome analysis
Description: Objective: To develop a cervical cancer screening tool for HPV-negative cases using vaginal microbiome analysis.
Hypothesis: We hypothesise that this tool could enhance screening sensitivity compared to HPV-DNA test alone.
Design and subjects: It is a two-year seed grant project that involves estimating false HPV-negative rates of HPV-DNA test through high-risk HPV metagenomics analysis (Objective 1) and characterising the vaginal microbiome in individuals at three stages of cervical cancer (non-cancerous, pre-cancerous, and cervical cancer stages) using Nanopore 16S rRNA gene sequencing (Objective 2). Finally, a low-cost vaginal microbiome-based cervical cancer screening tool will be developed to enhance the sensitivity of cervical cancer detection (Objective 3). This approach will use bacterial indicators or microbiome patterns as distinctive bacterial signatures.
Main outcome measures: Our goal is to revolutionise health policies by integrating vaginal microbiome into co-testing for cervical cancer screening. Through establishing an accurate vaginal microbiome test, doctors could gain better insight into whether patients require future diagnostic procedures and assess the need for surgery. This integration could provide women with additional insights into their vaginal health and their risk of developing cervical cancer.
Funder: Health and Medical Research Fund
Amount: HKD 496,500
Funding type: grant
Funder scheme: HMRF - Advanced Medical Research
Start date: 2023-01-01
Investigator: Wing Tung LEE
Institution: Department of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Funded outputs count: 0
Funder award ID: 12231286
OpenAlex ID: G3627733703