mPatch: a rapid test for improving diagnosis and triage of melanoma patients in primary care

mPatch：一种快速测试，用于改善初级保健中黑色素瘤患者的诊断和分诊

• 批准号: MR/Y503381/1
• 负责人: Sylvain Ladame
• 金额: $ 22.44万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FY503381%2F1
• 关键词: mPatch; rapid; test; improving; diagnosis

Cancers of the skin are the most common of all cancers and affect almost equally women and men. The number of cases is increasing rapidly, including for melanoma, one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer. The way skin cancers are diagnosed has barely evolved in recent years despite being very subjective and inefficient.How they are currently diagnosed: Initial diagnosis in primary care typically begins with a visual inspection by a GP, looking for physical abnormalities of a suspected mole or lesion. If it looks suspicious, the GP will recommend an urgent 2-week-wait (2WW) referral with a dermatologist who will then do a more thorough visual examination and then do a skin biopsy. The biopsy will then be sent for a lengthy and costly analysis before a final diagnosis can be made. Although the large majority (>94%) of melanoma patients are sent on the 2WW referral pathway, 96% of people sent on this pathway do not have melanoma. This causes unnecessary stress and scarring and is also very costly to the NHS. Over £35 million are spent every year on unnecessary diagnostic procedures for skin cancer only.The need for a new, less subjective test: There is therefore an urgent need for new diagnostic tests that can help clinicians in primary care improve the quality of their referral. Reducing the number of healthy people sent unnecessarily on the 2WW pathway with also help reduce the current pressure on dermatologists. Our solution is to provide GPs with a new affordable and painless device to be used alongside visual inspection for a more informed diagnosis.A painless skin patch and a result within 24h: Painlessly applied near the suspicious skin lesion, our skin patch will collect cancer-specific molecules contained within the skin fluid. It will then be sent to a centralised lab for a rapid (24h) analysis similar to that done for Covid testing. With an accuracy comparable to that of a skin biopsy, our test will help GPs identify those skin cancer patients that require urgent intervention. In this project, we will experimentally demonstrate the feasibility and accuracy of our test on human skin biopsies taken and already analysed by dermatologists. We will also engage with GPs and patient groups when developing our prototype. This is to ensure it is well accepted and can be rapidly included into the current skin cancer diagnostic pathway within the NHS.

皮肤癌是所有癌症中最常见的，对女性和男性的影响几乎相同。其中包括黑色素瘤，这是最致命的皮肤癌之一。皮肤癌的诊断方式几乎没有发展。近年来，尽管非常主观且效率低下。目前如何诊断：初级保健的初步诊断通常从全科医生的目视检查开始，寻找可疑的痣或病变的身体异常如果看起来可疑，全科医生会建议。紧急的等待 2 周 (2WW) 转诊给皮肤科医生，然后由皮肤科医生进行更彻底的目视检查，然后进行皮肤活检，然后再做出最终诊断。绝大多数（> 94％）的黑色素瘤患者被送往第二次世界大战转诊途径，96％的人被送往此途径并没有不必要的黑色素瘤，这会导致压力和疤痕，并且对 NHS 来说也非常昂贵。仅针对皮肤癌，每年就花费数百万美元用于不必要的诊断程序。 需要一种新的、主观性较小的测试：因此，迫切需要新的诊断测试，可以帮助初级保健的圣徒提高转诊质量。大量健康人被不必要地送往第二次世界大战，这也有助于减轻皮肤科医生目前的压力。我们的解决方案是为全科医生提供一种新的价格实惠且无痛的设备，与目视检查一起使用，以获得更明智的诊断。无痛皮肤贴片和内的结果24 小时：无痛地贴在可疑皮肤病变附近，我们的皮肤贴片将收集皮肤液中含有的癌症特异性分子，然后将其发送到中央实验室进行快速（24 小时）分析，类似于 Covid 测试。我们的测试的准确性与皮肤活检相当，将帮助全科医生识别那些需要紧急干预的皮肤癌患者。在这个项目中，我们将通过实验证明我们对人类皮肤活检进行测试的可行性和准确性。在开发我们的原型时，我们还将与全科医生和患者团体合作，以确保它被广泛接受并能够迅速纳入 NHS 内当前的皮肤癌诊断途径。