Centre for Trials Research joins major UK-wide bowel imaging study to improve cancer diagnosis

Cardiff University’s Centre for Trials Research, funded by Health and Care Research Wales, will work with partners from across the UK on a major national study to evaluate new bowel imaging technology.

Led by York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the ColoCap study will look at ‘camera in a capsule’ technology, as part of a £3 million national research project to improve bowel cancer diagnosis.

Currently, patients with suspected bowel cancer usually undergo a telescope test of the large bowel known as colonoscopy - an invasive test that can be uncomfortable or embarrassing for some patients and is performed in hospital.

The new technology, known as colon capsule endoscopy, is an easy-to-swallow ‘camera in a capsule’. Once swallowed it travels through the stomach and small intestine to the large bowel and takes multiple photographs of the inner lining of the bowel.

The images are sent to a recorder that the patient wears which is then downloaded. This provides consultants with a minimally invasive, remotely accessible, and innovative tool to diagnose bowel cancer, colitis, and pre-malignant polyps. Eventually, the capsule passes naturally out of the body within the stool, having significantly less impact on the environment than a colonoscopy.

Georgina Gardner, Trial Manager at the Centre for Trials Research, said: “The Centre for Trials Research at Cardiff University is proud to announce its collaboration with partners across the UK in the ColoCap study, a groundbreaking national research project led by York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Colocap aims to evaluate the efficacy of new bowel imaging technology. Should CCE prove to be an accurate, satisfactory and cost-effective test it has the potential to innovatively address the current challenges facing the NHS in capacity, uptake and accessibility in colorectal diagnostics.”