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; 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.

皮肤的癌症是所有癌症中最常见的癌症，几乎影响男女。病例的数量正在迅速增加，包括黑色素瘤，这是皮肤癌最致命的形式之一。近年来，诊断出皮肤癌的诊断方式几乎没有发展，目的地非常主观和无效。它们目前被诊断出来：初级保健中的初始诊断通常是从GP进行视觉检查开始的，寻找可疑的痣或病变的身体异常。如果看起来可疑，GP将与皮肤科医生一起进行紧急的2周等待（2WW）转诊，然后将其进行更彻底的视觉检查，然后进行皮肤活检。然后，在进行最终诊断之前，将进行活检进行冗长且昂贵的分析。尽管大多数（> 94％）的黑色素瘤患者是在2WW推荐途径上发送的，但在此途径上发送的96％的人没有黑色素瘤。这会导致不必要的压力和疤痕，对NHS也很昂贵。每年只花费超过3500万英镑用于不必要的皮肤癌诊断程序。需要进行新的，不太主观的测试：因此，迫切需要进行新的诊断测试，可以帮助临床医生的初级保健临床医生提高转诊的质量。减少在2WW途径上不必要的健康人员的数量，还有助于减轻当前对皮肤科医生的压力。我们的解决方案是为GP提供一种新的负担得起和痛苦的设备，可与视觉检查一起使用，以进行更明智的诊断。一种无痛的皮肤贴片和24小时内的结果：在可疑的皮肤病变附近无痛地涂抹，我们的皮肤贴剂将收集皮肤液体中包含的癌症特异性分子。然后，它将发送到集中式实验室进行快速（24h）分析，类似于用于共同测试的分析。具有与皮肤活检相当的准确性，我们的测试将帮助GPS识别那些需要紧急干预的皮肤癌患者。在这个项目中，我们将在实验上证明我们对人类皮肤活检的可行性和准确性，并已经由皮肤科医生进行了分析。开发原型时，我们还将与GPS和患者群体互动。这是为了确保它已被良好接受，并且可以迅速纳入NHS中当前的皮肤癌诊断途径。