Press release: CERVAG Project
Public Private Partnership allowance to study how the vaginal microbiome affects HPV infection and cervical cancer
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Radboudumc investigator Dr. Petra Zusterzeel in collaboration with Predica Diagnostics received a TKI-LSH PPP allowance to study how the vaginal microbiome affects HPV infection and development of cervical cancer. Goal of the project is to develop an accurate test that decreases the number of unnecessary treatments of women with a false positive result in the cervical cancer screening program.
Cervical cancer is an important health problem that can be prevented by screening. The tests currently used for screening (HPV tests and PAP tests) are far from perfect because they lack specificity; Of the 10% HPV positive women, less than 0.5% is at risk, resulting in > 40% unnecessarily referrals for further examination, leading to unnecessary distress for women and associated pressure on the health system.
In the CERVAG project, Radboudumc and Predica Diagnostics will develop the CERVAG test to identify those women who are really at risk for cervical (pre)cancer and actually need to be referred for colposcopy. In the Netherlands in 2022 330,000 of 720,000 invited women responded to a screening invitation. Of the approximately 36,000 positive tests, only 3,000 needed treatment for a precancer, whereas thousands of healthy women were referred to gynecology clinics, undergoing unnecessary medical examination often with a biopsy. This low specificity comes at a cost of >20 million Euro per year on unnecessary healthcare, and may even lead to a negative annotation to screening. A more reliable test may increase participation in population-based screening for cervical cancer, an important factor in eradicating this disease.
HrHPV infection is thus necessary but not sufficient for the development of cervical cancer. Specific bacterial gene products, found in bacterial vaginosis increase the incidence of HPV-induced cervical (pre)cancers. The CERVAG test combines detection of bacterial gene expression with hrHPV-gene activity and hrHPV-induced human gene products to distinguish between non-dangerous HPV infections and dangerous HPV infections. Implementing CERVAG-test as a triage test into the national screening program could save the Dutch healthcare system over 20 million euros yearly.
Radboudumc – Dr. Petra Zusterzeel: Petra Zusterzeel is principal investigator on this project and as care program leader supervisor of the colposcopy unit and involved in the treatment of women with cervical dysplasia and cervical cancer. As a specialist in fertility sparing surgery for young women with cervical cancer, her goal is to contribute to eradicate cervical cancer worldwide.
Predica Diagnostics B.V is a spinoff from the Radboud UMC, active in the field of diagnostics, prognostics and prediction of treatment response in oncology. Predica Diagnostics aims to bring its ciRNAseq technology to patients in 1 to 2 years with a first focus on developing a test for early detection and risk assessment of cervical cancer, CervicaDX. The test allows non-invasive detection of cervical abnormalities with unprecedented specificity in women who are at risk of developing cervical cancer. in addition to the CervicaDX test other diagnostic tests for host-microbiome interactions will improve diagnosis and prediction of response to treatment with precision medicines, enabling the development of personalized treatment plans for cancer patients.
TKI-PPP
The Radboud UMC TKI grants for PPP projects are available to all Radboudumc researchers and allows them to perform research projects in collaboration with companies in Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). The funding is provided by the NL government (Ministry of Economic Affairs) through the Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO) and the Topconsortium voor Kennis en Innovatie Life Sciences & Health (TKI-LSH, a.k.a. Health-Holland).
Contact: www.predica-diagnostics.com
Marco de Boer CEO (marco.deboer@predicadx.com)
+31 6 4444 8450