Professor Anna Schuh (Department of Oncology) is working with multidisciplinary teams in Tanzania and Uganda to research earlier diagnosis of lymphoma in children and young adults. Funded by an NIHR Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation award, the team is trialling two new diagnostic technologies to accelerate lymphoma diagnosis in this region.
“The aim of this programme is to improve and speed-up the diagnosis of a particular form of childhood cancer that is very common in sub-Saharan Africa, because it’s caused by a combination of malaria and EBV infections very early in childhood” says Professor Schuh.
The first technology uses a low-cost camera that can be attached to any microscope to capture images of tissue biopsies that can be sent to pathologists working elsewhere, thus allowing diagnostic expertise to reach more remote locations. The second technology measures circulating tumour DNA from blood samples and the team is working to build capacity for this technique in sub-Saharan Africa.