ENDOMET - Novel Diagnostic Tools and Treatments for Endometriosis

Brief summary (from the registry)

Endometriosis is a chronic disease characterized by the presence of functional endometrial glands and stroma in ectopic locations outside the uterine cavity. The ectopic endometrial tissue responds to estradiol and other hormones similarly to the normal endometrium. Endometriosis is one of the most common benign gynecological conditions, as many as 5-10% of women in the reproductive age may be affected. In addition to pain which may be severe, subfertility is one of the typical problems associated with endometriosis and may be present in up to 40% of those affected. There is lack of a clear correlation between severity of pain and degree of compromised fertility. Different modes of treatment exist. Hormonal treatments are based on the suppression of estrogenic action on endometriosis as well as the endometrium. Unfortunately, discontinuation of the hormonal treatment typically results in a rapid recurrence of the disease. Surgery may alleviate the symptom for different lengths of time, however, curative treatment frequently involves hysterectomy with bilateral oophorectomy. In order to escape this radical treatment, new targeted therapy in the form of novel pharmacological agents would be of crucial importance. Presently, endometriosis can be reliably diagnosed only by laparoscopy. Since this is an invasive surgical procedure, new diagnostic tools would be warmly welcomed. Furthermore, as the progression of the disease is presently impossible to predict, new markers for the "malignancy" of each case are desperately needed. The aim of the investigators research is to identify expression of endometriosis specific RNAs/proteins. Evaluation of expression profiles in samples of endometriosis and endometrium of patients with careful clinical and surgical classification of endometriosis as well as healthy control women should initially enable to identify novel targets for new therapies and biomarkers. Particularly the different pain symptoms will be recorded annually and e…

Study details

Official title

Novel Diagnostic Tools for Endometriosis and Their Exploitation for Prognosis and Prevention of Complications

Conditions

• Endometriosis

Interventions

• Procedure: Laparoscopy/laparotomy

Sponsor

Turku University Hospital

Collaborators

University of Turku; The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation; VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland; Finnish Medical Foundation; Hormos Medical; PerkinElmer, Wallac Oy; Biotop Oy; Pharmatest Services Ltd; Drug Discovery Graduate School, Finland; The National Graduate School of Clinical Investigation, Finland

Start date

2005-10

Primary completion

2025-12

Sex

Female

Age range

from 19 Years to 48 Years

Healthy volunteers

true

Results posted

No results posted in this snapshot

Countries

Finland

Total sites listed

4

Eligibility criteria