UCL Ventures spinout Sola Diagnostics develops womb cancer test

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 WID®-easy test allows women aged 45 years and over to go to the doctor to discuss abnormal uterine bleeding and 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 technology and is already routinely used in other diagnostic tests.

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.

UCL Ventures worked with Prof Widschwendter to protect the IP around his research on which WID®-easy Test is based.

Caitriona O’Rourke, Senior Business Manager at UCL Ventures, 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. UCL Ventures is focused on delivering positive impacts and this is a prime example.”

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.”

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.