Viewpoint No 4 – Detecting Cholangiocarcinoma

Specialist Viewpoint – or cholangiocarcinoma as they see it …

Article 4 – Detecting Cholangiocarcinoma

AMMF is running a series of articles from specialists giving their viewpoint on cholangiocarcinoma diagnosis, treatments and research.  The fourth article in this series falls into the research category.

Earlier this year we were delighted and encouraged to hear that John Chetwood, a final year medical student at Imperial College London, had been awarded a prize at a national research conference, and first place in the Innovation in Global Health competition, for his research work in collaboration with Khon Kaen University, Thailand, on urinary biomarkers to detect cholangiocarcinoma – work which he entitled aptly, “Detecting a Silent Killer.”

A reliable urinary biomarker for cholangiocarcinoma – a dipstick test –  would represent huge progress and, as John commented, “If we had such a test for cholangiocarcinoma it would be easy to look for it if you had the slightest suspicion of this cancer, plus you could test people during treatment to see if the cancer was responding.”

As this research is to continue and has such incredible potential, AMMF invited John to contribute to our Viewpoint series, which he has now generously done.  (And if anyone has any queries on this work, we will be happy to pass them on to John and the team at Imperial College.)

To read John’s full Viewpoint article, and a comment from Professor Simon Taylor-Robinson,  click here

September 2012