New womb cancer test available to women in the UK

The WID®-easy test detects the same number of women with womb cancer as ultrasound*. It also reduces the number of false positives by 87% - which could prevent unnecessary invasive diagnostic procedures and potentially help hundreds of thousands of women in the UK each year.

The test, developed by UCL spinout company, Sola Diagnostics, will be available to women above the age of 45 with abnormal uterine bleeding and is now being rolled out to private clinics.

The team also hope to start negotiations for it to be available on the NHS.

The WID®-easy test would enable women aged 45 years and over going to the doctor to discuss abnormal uterine bleeding to have a simple swab taken from the vagina during their appointment to send off for testing. The test uses the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which is relatively low-cost and is already routinely used, for example in the detection of COVID-19.

The test looks at ‘tags’ on the top of the DNA, called DNA methylation. DNA from cancer cells has a particular pattern of DNA methylation, like a unique barcode, that can be specifically “scanned” by the WID®-easy test, and indicates if womb cancer is present, or not.

If someone’s test comes back as positive for a potential cancer, they would then need a biopsy to confirm or rule out the diagnosis.

Statistics show that in England, the NHS is currently struggling to meet its targets in gynaecology – meeting the Faster Diagnosis Standard for gynaecology only 66% of the time (rather than the target 75%). Consequently, the WID®-easy presents several benefits for patients and clinics.

In addition to significantly reducing the number of women undergoing painful biopsy procedures when they do not have cancer and helping doctors to prioritise women with the highest risk of cancer, the test also performs equally reliably in women from different ethnic groups. This is a key advantage over ultrasound which is known to be less reliable at ruling out womb cancer in Black women.

Professor Martin Widschwendter (UCL EGA Institute for Women’s Health and University of Innsbruck), inventor of the WID®-easy test, said: “The WID®-easy test is the first test of its kind in the UK – using a simple swab method to detect womb cancer. Our robust data on the effectiveness of the test represents years of dedicated research by a committed team. We are proud to have developed a test that addresses an urgent gap in women’s health and performs well across all women."

The CEO of The Eve Appeal, Athena Lamnisos, added: “Currently in the UK the tests to investigate abnormal bleeding and check for womb cancer can cause stress and discomfort. The usual test is a hysteroscopy which many find painful and invasive. A test which is less painful and more acceptable is to be welcomed by many. One of the key groups who may benefit from this test are Black women who more often receive a late-stage diagnosis for this cancer.

“The Eve Appeal is delighted to see this progress in research that the charity funded resulting in a test that may be effective in the clinical setting. The WID®-easy test could enable the many thousands of women who experience abnormal bleeding, and where cancer needs to be ruled out, to potentially avoid painful tests like hysteroscopies and have their minds put at rest sooner, saving them from unnecessary stress.”

Every year, more than 300,000 people will go to their GP with abnormal uterine bleeding and of these over 10,000 will be diagnosed with womb cancer. The incidence of womb cancer has increased by almost 60% since the 1990s and this trend continues.

Most postmenopausal women with abnormal uterine bleeding are offered a transvaginal ultrasound where a scanner probe is inserted into the vagina to visualise the inside of the womb and measure the thickness of the womb lining (endometrium). This method of detecting womb cancer has particularly poor performance in Black women, for example because they have benign fibroids which make accurate measurement of the womb lining thickness challenging.

As a thickened womb lining can be caused by many things, most of which are non-cancer related, a biopsy is needed to diagnose the cause.

Often, the procedure used to collect the biopsy is a surgical one involving a hysteroscopy (a narrow telescope with a light and small camera at the end, which is placed into the vagina, passed through the cervix and into the womb) followed by a biopsy. These procedures are invasive and can be very painful as the cervical canal needs to be dilated and the womb to be moved to optimise access.

Data generated for the WID®-easy test indicate that it has high performance in all women, and it therefore has the potential to streamline the diagnostic process.

Sola Diagnostics was founded by Professor Widschwendter in 2020 to commercialise the WID®-easy test, following over a decade of research with support from The Eve Appeal, the UK's leading gynaecological cancers charity.

So far, the test is available in clinics in Austria and Switzerland.

UCL Business (UCLB), UCL’s commercialisation company, worked with Professor Widschwendter to protect the IP around his research on which WID®-easy test is based.

Caitriona O’Rourke, Business Manager at UCLB, said: “We are thrilled to see Sola Diagnostics reach this important milestone and achieving marketing authorisation in the UK. This test is a breakthrough for womb cancer providing quick and accurate results. UCLB is focused on delivering positive impacts and this is a prime example of UCL research reaching the clinic and market to advance medical care and make a real difference to people.”

For more information on WID®-easy and for a list of UK clinics where WID®-easy is currently offered, visit www.aghealth.co.uk/wid-easy.

* Research paper in The Lancet Oncology, December 2023

Links

• WID®-easy test
• Professor Martin Widschwendter's academic profile
• UCL EGA Institute for Women's Health
• UCL Population Health Sciences
• Sola Diagnostics
• UCLB
• University of Innsbruck
• The Eve Appeal

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• Professor Widschwendter et al.

Media contact 

Poppy Tombs

E: p.tombs [at] ucl.ac.uk