A new test to identify cells collected from urine and vaginal fluid could help rule out womb and other cancers in most women who experience bleeding after the menopause, find University of Manchester researchers.
Their study published in Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Women’s Health on 22/09/26 say the test could potentially reduce the need for invasive hospital investigations, easing anxiety during what can be a distressing time for many women.
The research team, also based at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)Biomedical Research Centre (BRC): Manchester, showed that the new test can detect womb cancer, also known as endometrial cancer, with high accuracy.
Postmenopausal bleeding currently triggers urgent investigation for possible cancer, often involving a series of uncomfortable, invasive and costly tests, even though most women will not ultimately receive a cancer diagnosis.
Further work from the group, also published in the same journal today, showed that current tests are poorly calibrated for people from Black ethnic backgrounds, leading to health inequalities in diagnosis, treatment and patient outcomes.
However, the new test was particularly effective at detecting aggressive and advanced cancers, and performed exceptionally well in Black women, who are twice as likely to die from womb cancer as White women in the UK.
The researchers say the new test could therefore help to reduce health inequities and improve outcomes for previously disadvantaged groups, including those who are unable to tolerate routine procedures.
The test could eventually be used in primary care and other community settings, helping speed up diagnosis and provide reassurance for many women.
Womb cancer affects nearly 10,000 women in the UK each year, but only 5–10% of women investigated for bleeding after the menopause will have cancer.
Despite that, most undergo invasive hospital tests that can be uncomfortable, costly and sometimes need repeating.
Previous studies led by Manchester researchers have suggested cancer cells can be detected in urine and vaginal fluid samples.
The DETECT study – as it is known – was designed to assess whether these simple, non-invasive tests could accurately identify women at risk while safely reassuring others.
The study involved 1,864 women attending hospitals *with postmenopausal bleeding, making it one of the largest evaluations of this approach to date.
Before having their routine clinical investigations, participants provided a urine sample and a vaginal fluid sample, which were examined for abnormal cells by specialist cytopathologists who did not know the women’s diagnoses.
A total of 115 women were found to have cancer, including 99 cases of womb cancer and a smaller number of other pelvic cancers.
When urine and vaginal cytology (cell sample) results were combined, the test correctly identified more than 80% of cancers and achieved a negative predictive value of 98.8% for womb cancer, meaning women with a negative result were highly unlikely to have the disease.
The vaginal test performed slightly better than the urine test alone, although both showed promising diagnostic accuracy.
The test detected almost all aggressive cancers, identifying 95.8% of high-grade tumours and 96.4% of cancers that had already spread beyond the uterus.
“The University of Manchester is a public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester City Centre on Oxford Road.”
Please visit the firm link to site
