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RAman For Thyroid cancER

Not yet recruiting
Conditions
Thyroid Diseases
Thyroid Cancer
Interventions
Procedure: thyroid lobectomy
Device: Raman spectroscopy probe measurement
Registration Number
NCT04040673
Lead Sponsor
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Brief Summary

Ex vivo vibrational spectroscopy (VS), including Raman spectroscopy (RS) of thyroid tissue samples, collected from patients undergoing routine diagnostic thyroid biopsies for diagnosis of potential thyroid cancer. Raman spectra are to be correlated with consensus histopathology and clinical outcomes. Multivariate analysis to be used to evaluate the classification accuracy of VS ex vivo.

Detailed Description

The Investigators (The Biophotonics Research Unit, University of Exeter and University of Bristol) have developed these "smart needle" probes, consisting of fibre-optics within a fine needle for investigating cancer below the skin's surface. It is difficult to create a sensitive probe to fit inside a needle; however, The Investigators have demonstrated this approach in lymph node tissue samples from 68 patients in the laboratory, where The Investigators showed that our probe could detect cancer with a high level of accuracy.

Following on from our success with lymph nodes The Investigators wish to trial our smart needle on excised thyroid to demonstrate the device in another ENT cancer. Earlier studies have shown that thyroid cancer can be diagnosed using RS under a microscope with an accuracy greater than 78%.9 By eliminating the need for unnecessary surgery by diagnosis with our device, The Investigators will minimise the risk to patients, eliminate delays in obtaining results and reduce the cost of surgery and overnight stay in the hospital. The Investigators wish to advance this device closer to the clinic for a new cancer to improve the patient care pathway and remove the need for unnecessary surgery, by facilitating the work of the one-stop ENT diagnostic outpatient clinics.

The study consists of measuring spectra of new tissue taken during routine diagnostic surgical thyroid lobectomy.

New tissue for this project will be collected during routine biopsy will be rapidly analysed by a spectrometer before proceeding with conventional histopathological analysis. The new tissue will consist of thyroid and adjacent tissue biopsies. No additional tissue will be taken for this research, The Investigators only plan to measure samples taken during routine diagnosis in under 5 minutes, before passing the sections back to the surgical team for routine histopathological analysis.

Anonymous background information relevant to known risk factors, family history and details of any treatment, menopausal status, details relevant medical procedures, and any treatment for thyroid cancer will be provided with the samples. An example of the report can be found in Appendix 3. Tissue specimens taken during routine clinical care are to be subjected to ex vivo vibrational spectroscopic analysis immediately prior to being sent for routine histopathological analysis. Vibrational spectra are to be correlated with consensus histopathology of adjacent sections. Multivariate analysis is to be used to evaluate the classification accuracy of VS ex vivo. The vibrational spectra will be assessed for both prognostic as well as diagnostic information.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
40
Inclusion Criteria
  • Patients undergoing routine diagnostic thyroid biopsy at surgery
Exclusion Criteria
  • Patients are unable to provide informed consent.
  • Patients not attending for standard diagnostic biopsy for thyroid cancer

Study & Design

Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Study Design
Not specified
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Normal benignthyroid lobectomyparticipants with normal benign nodules (no cancer)
Papillary thyroid cancerthyroid lobectomyparticipants with papillary thyroid cancer
Medullary thyroid cancerthyroid lobectomyparticipants with medullary thyroid cancer
Anaplastic thyroid cancerRaman spectroscopy probe measurementparticipants with anaplastic thyroid cancer
Anaplastic thyroid cancerthyroid lobectomyparticipants with anaplastic thyroid cancer
Medullary thyroid cancerRaman spectroscopy probe measurementparticipants with medullary thyroid cancer
Normal benignRaman spectroscopy probe measurementparticipants with normal benign nodules (no cancer)
Follicular thyroid cancerthyroid lobectomyparticipants with follicular thyroid cancer
Follicular thyroid cancerRaman spectroscopy probe measurementparticipants with follicular thyroid cancer
Papillary thyroid cancerRaman spectroscopy probe measurementparticipants with papillary thyroid cancer
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Test the Raman needle probe on freshly exised tissue1 year

Measure Raman spectra and match with histopathology. Perform leave-one-out analysis to measure performance of diagnosis of Raman spectroscopy

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Calculate diagnostic performance of Raman spectroscopy probe for thyroid cancer1 year

Diagnostic performance (specificity and sensitivity) of Raman spectroscopy (RS) for differentiation of thyroid cancer vs normal benign (no cancer).

Diagnostic performance of RS for differentiation of thyroid cancer types.

* Papillary thyroid cancer

* Follicular thyroid cancer

* Anaplastic thyroid cancer

* Medullary thyroid cancer

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Biophotonics Research Unit

🇬🇧

Gloucester, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

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