Diagnosing a brain tumour precisely can currently take weeks, because clinicians must run several separate genetic tests to distinguish between more than 100 recognised tumour types. Newcastle University, working with Newcastle Hospitals, is among the first in the UK to deploy an alternative: rapid nanopore sequencing of tumour DNA combined with an analysis platform called ROBIN, designed to return the critical molecular information within days.
The approach has already been tested on 40 tumour types from children, young people and adults in the North East of England. Newcastle now joins a network of five specialist centres that will gather evidence over a two-year project, assessing whether the test genuinely benefits patients, gives clinicians information they can act on, and performs reliably in routine healthcare settings rather than research conditions.
The stakes are considerable. Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40, according to The Brain Tumour Charity, and faster molecular classification could mean earlier access to the right treatment or trial. The team's longer-term aspiration is bolder still: providing a provisional diagnostic result while the patient is still in surgery, allowing operations to be tailored in real time.