New trial brings EndoSign screening for esophageal cancer closer
The BEST4 trial, designed to evaluate the potential of a national screening programme, started today. It seeks to explore if our Heartburn Health Check using the minimally invasive test, EndoSign, can prevent deaths from esophageal cancer when offered as a screening test to people on long-term medication for heartburn.
“This is another major step forward for our technology. The trial will evaluate the potential for a national screening programme and explore if our Heartburn Health Check using the minimally invasive test, EndoSign, can be used to prevent esophageal cancer when offered as a screening test to people on long-term medication for heartburn” said Cyted’s CEO and co-founder, Marcel Gehrung, “Our test is already deployed in over 70 hospitals and GP surgeries all across the UK and demonstrates how innovation can have a real and lasting impact on our health system, reducing waiting lists and ultimately saving lives.”
With Cyted’s non-invasive capsule sponge test continuing to prove its effectiveness at diagnosing Barret’s esophagus in the UK, the trial could pave the way for a test to be established as a routine screening programme to detect the condition, which can lead to esophageal cancer.
The trial builds on decades of research led by the Director at the Early Cancer Institute and Cyted’s co-founder, Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald. She and the team at Cyted invented and refined the capsule sponge test.
Tim Cowper, 49, a brewer from Cambridge, has had acid reflux, or heartburn, every night since he was 16. A routine health check while he was at university resulted in the shock diagnosis of Barrett’s esophagus. After his diagnosis, he has been monitored ever since. Tim said:
“I was alarmed when I was told that having Barrett’s meant having pre-cancerous cells in my gullet. Cancer is never a nice word to hear, especially when you are so young, but luckily, I’ve had my condition monitored.”
“Since my diagnosis, I’ve been going for an endoscopy at least once every three years to monitor my esophagus. It is not pleasant at all. Each time, I have a thick tube pushed down through my mouth, and I can feel every single one of the biopsies taken by the camera. Swallowing a capsule sponge is a much better experience, and I now get the test before my regular endoscopy appointment.”
The second stage of the trial, BEST4 Screening, opens in the summer and will recruit 120,000 people aged over 55 on long-term treatment for heartburn.
The multi-million-pound trial is jointly funded by Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
