EVAssay: A liquid biopsy transforming prostate cancer diagnosis

As part of UK Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, we’re sharing this Medical Research Council (MRC), Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) funded project exploring EVAssay, a blood-based diagnostic approach to support more accurate, non-invasive prostate cancer detection.

Led by Prof Aled Clayton and supported by Dr Isobella Honeyborne, the project focused on addressing technical barriers to help move promising laboratory research closer to clinical use.

Funded by the Medical Research Council, through UK Research and Innovation Impact Acceleration Account funding at Cardiff University.

Prostate cancer diagnosis often relies on invasive biopsies that can be costly and uncomfortable for patients, and risks infection in about 10% of cases. This project focused on developing EVAssay, a blood-based diagnostic approach designed to support more accurate, non-invasive detection. The work aimed to move promising laboratory research closer to real-world clinical use.

Researchers at Cardiff University tackled key technical barriers limiting blood-based cancer diagnostics, developing new methods to improve reliability, scalability, and readiness for clinical laboratories.

Using patient samples from the Wales Cancer Biobank, the team redesigned the assay to support automation and future discovery, strengthening pathways towards clinical use.

IAA funding enabled high-risk, early-stage development that standard research funding rarely supports, allowing the team to test and refine a promising diagnostic approach.

It generated critical evidence for follow-on investment and directly underpinned a £600k Health and Care Research Wales Advanced Fellowship awarded to Isobella Honeyborne. The funding has positioned the technology for larger-scale validation, to provide robust evidence for its potential usefulness alongside current standard practice, and hopefully aiding decisions around the need for biopsy.