Sara Bønløkke

HPV in Blood Samples From Cervical Cancer Patients.

By means of digital droplet PCR (ddPCR) anf targeted Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), this study examines blood samples from patients newly diagnosed with cervical cancer to investigate whether it is possible to measure the presence and amount of HPV DNA in these blood samples. The first blood sample is taken at time of diagnosis, and follow-up blood samples are collected during treatment- and follow-up visits. We expect to find a correlation between the disease stage and the viral load and also a decline in viral load after treatment. Furthermore, we hope that this method may serve as a way of detecting disease recurrence earlier than what is possible today.