Potential tumour marker for cervical cancer

Regardless of the introduction of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, cervical cancer continues to be a common malignancy worldwide in women. Physical examination and imaging studies are used for post-treatment surveillance. However, frequent imaging is impractical and costly. A simple and sensitive blood test to inform prognosis and guide treatment will be far more effective to detect recurrence. The study “Liquid biopsy of HPV DNA in cervical cancer” aimed to examine the efficacy of utilizing circulating HPV DNA as a tumour marker for cervical cancer and to evaluate the correlation between circulating HPV DNA and prognosis. The analysis showed that circulating HPV DNA was a promising test to monitor patients during and after treatment for cervical cancer, yet more research was needed to increase the detection rate before it could be clinically used as a tumour marker. (J Clin Virol. 2019 May;114:32-36. doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2019.03.005. Epub 2019 Mar 12.)

Anyone interested in future collaboration in this field of research is welcome to contact our key investigator Prof. Paul CHAN in the Department of Microbiology, CUHK. Prof. CHAN’s research focuses on human tumour virology, human respiratory viruses, diagnostic virology, viral epidemiology and viral pathogenesis

Read full article: 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1386653219300502?via%3Dihub

More about research at CU Medicine: https://research.med.cuhk.edu.hk