The test works by sending small tissue samples taken from the tumour to the pathology lab. <\/p>\n
The samples are prepared for loading into a shoebox-sized sequencing machine made by Oxford Nanopore, which uses specialist software developed at the University of Nottingham, in partnership with hospital clinicians. The molecules of DNA pass through a nanopore – a tiny hole – which reveals the tumour’s unique genomic fingerprint.<\/p>\n
In Steve’s case, after the nanopore machine was running for 20 minutes, the neuropathology team called the theatre to tell them that the tumour was likely to be a glioblastoma.<\/p>\n
Dr Simon Paine, consultant neuropathologist at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, explained that the genomic test was transformative in comparison to what he could determine by looking at tumour cells down a microscope.<\/p>\n
“I’m crystal ball gazing and can do it reasonably well on a good day, but nowhere near with the clarity of the nanopore, which gives a comprehensive molecular classification,” he said.<\/p>\n
More than 12,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour each year. It is the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40.<\/p>\n
Prof Frankie Swords, NHS medical director, said: “For people with suspected brain tumours, getting the right diagnosis quickly can feel like a race against time, while waiting weeks for answers can be agonising for them and their families.<\/p>\n
“This remarkable rapid test has the potential to completely transform how we diagnose brain tumours, with results reaching patients in a matter of days rather than weeks.<\/p>\n
“This is a huge leap forward for patients – a faster diagnosis means they can start the right treatment or access clinical trials sooner, while for some patients it could mean surgeons can make potentially life-changing decisions about their surgery while on the operating table.”<\/p>\n
The NHS England pilot will involve five specialist centres in Nottingham, Birmingham, London and Newcastle – they are Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital and Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.<\/p>\n
It will later be extended to sites in Bristol, Oxford, Leeds and Manchester.<\/p>\n
The pilot builds on an earlier project already under way in Nottingham and Birmingham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The test works by sending small tissue samples taken from the tumour to the pathology lab. The samples…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-781746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}