Abstract 6531: Point of care test for cervical cancer screening

Abstract

Abstract Cervical cancer is a lethal gynecological malignancy and the fourth most common cancer among women. Most high-grade cervical pre-cancers and cancer cases are linked to infection with high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV). There is an inequity between high-income countries (HICs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in cervical cancer burden; according to the World Health Organization, the estimated mortality rate of cervical cancer is 342,000 women worldwide in 2020, and 90% of these women reside in low- and middle-income nations where the human papillomavirus vaccine is unavailable and access to early detection testing are either unavailable or too expensive. This study aims to develop a simple and affordable point-of-care test based on four critical biomarkers for screening high-risk pre-cancer and invasive cervical cancer in collaboration with the biomedical engineering department. A cervical cancer swab will be used in the test. The swab will be placed on a paper-based device that looks for four protein biomarkers critical for the progression of noninvasive cervical cancer into invasive cervical cancer by combining two approaches using proteomics and lateral flow immunochromatography technology. We have validated the markers' expression in cervical cancer and precancerous tissues. The four markers were expressed in squamous cell carcinoma, glassy cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, clear cell carcinoma cancer tissues, and the high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. This point-of-care test will be affordable and implementable, especially in low and middle-income countries. Citation Format: Samrin Farouk Idris Habbani, Sayeh Jalali Dowlatshahi, Monisha Elumalai, Scott Charles Bolton, Lucy Teberh Tecle, Pankti Rajesh Thakkar, Jacqueline C Linnes, Sulma I Mohammed. Point of care test for cervical cancer screening [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 6531.