UT-Professor Loes Segerink is working in a consortium with other research institutions, under the banner of NWO-KWF, on a biosensor chip that can make cervical cancer easier to detect. She hopes the technology will replace the traditional smear test within five to ten years.
‘The standard method at the moment is a smear test,’ Segerink explains. ‘The sample is sent to a lab, where it is analysed for the presence of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, an indicator of a potential risk of cervical cancer in the future. Having a smear test is not a pleasant procedure. And then you have to wait a few weeks in uncertainty before receiving the result.’
Too late
Partly for that reason, half of all women in the Netherlands between the ages of thirty and sixty never undergo a smear test, despite regularly receiving invitations. This has serious consequences. ‘The cancer is highly detectable, but many people only find out when it is already too late, even though it is entirely preventable.’
Participation in screening programmes among women with a migrant background is even lower, Segerink says, sometimes only around twenty to thirty percent. According to her, this is due to factors such as language barriers, taboos, fear of a male doctor, and the simple fact that in some households men handle the post and, may not realise its importance. ‘That is the more sociological side of the research: how do you reach this target group? For example, we could involve tea houses and mosques.’
Urine sample
Segerink’s chip could eventually become part of a device that detects DNA traces of cervical cancer in urine. ‘Testing in this way is much easier. Women would only need to provide a urine sample. A medical assistant can analyse it using a device. It is almost that simple. You get the result immediately.’
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