| Dear Supporter, We hope you’re enjoying the start of Spring, and welcome to the April 2023 CRUK Early Diagnosis Newsletter. It’s great to be able to highlight some of the activity ongoing within the early diagnosis community in this newsletter, and we would encourage you to get in touch if there is activity you would like us to feature in the future.
We have two fantastic convening opportunities coming up in May and October this year, with another CRUK Early Diagnosis Virtual Session taking place on 31st May, and the CRUK Early Detection Conference taking place on 10th-12th October. Details on how to sign up are included below.
Research publications from the community continue apace. We’re pleased to be able to feature recent important analysis on ethnicity and stage at diagnosis data, and findings from the National Cancer Diagnosis Audit. Crucially, much of the data and insight that is published in the early diagnosis space makes its way into CRUK information and our engagement and influencing activities. Good examples of this are shown below with some of our new and refreshed resources for health professionals. Please do share these resources with your networks and get in touch with ideas on what other products might be helpful for us to produce.
Lastly, it was really wonderful to see so many of you at the Cancer and Primary Care Research International Network Conference (Ca-PRI) recently. It was an informative, thought-provoking event and we’re already looking forward to the next year’s session in Melbourne.
Thank you for reading. Best wishes, Sam Harrison
Policy, Information and Communications Directorate at Cancer Research UK |
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Register now: Upcoming Early Diagnosis Virtual Session We are delighted to announce that we will be hosting our next CRUK Early Diagnosis Virtual Session, 'Implementing risk in the diagnosis of cancer: optimising the current and innovating the future' on 31st May 2023 from 10am – 12:30pm. Chaired by Professor Jon Emery, the event will showcase some of the latest research into ‘risk’ and its potential to support earlier cancer diagnosis. Find out more and register for the Session on our Virtual Events page. |
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The Early Detection of Cancer Conference If you are interested in cancer early detection, don’t miss our 2023 Early Detection of Cancer Conference, taking place between 10th and 12th October in London. This annual event will feature world-leading researchers from across the globe. Join us to learn about the latest developments in the field and network with peers and experts. Fiona Walter (Queen Mary, University of London), Ramasamy Paulmurugan (Canary Center at Stanford), and Julia Maxson (OHSU Knight Cancer Institute) - this year’s Scientific Programme Committee - are working on our exciting agenda. |
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New in BMJ Open: Analysis on the link between ethnicity and cancer stage at diagnosis New research from Cancer Research UK and NHS Digital published in the BMJ Open has revealed that Black women from Caribbean and African backgrounds are up to two times more likely to receive a late-stage diagnosis for some cancers than White British women in England.
Using data from NHS England, we reviewed around 697,000 diagnoses of six cancer types from 2012–2016 in people belonging to one of five ethnic groups in England.
There are many possible reasons driving the differences between the ethnic groups. Researchers suggest that interventions to support better awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer, removing barriers to help-seeking, and supporting doctors in the prompt recognition and referral of suspected cancer may help to address these issues.
You can also find out more about the study in our CRUK blog post or by listening to this interview on BBC Women’s Hour with Kruti Shrotri, CRUK’s Head of Policy Development. |
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New NCDA paper published in the BJGP A key research paper has just been published in the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP), comparing results from the 2014 and 2018 National Cancer Diagnosis Audits (NCDA) in England. The two audits span the release of the 2015 NICE 'Suspected cancer' guidance and help us to better understand pathways to cancer diagnosis. Key findings from the paper are outlined below. Since 2014: Most diagnostic processes measures have improved. Patients in 2018 were referred quicker, and fewer patients experienced multiple pre-referral consultations. Also, the proportion of urgent referrals for suspected cancer increased and emergency referrals decreased, particularly for brain cancer, leukaemia and multiple myeloma. Recorded use of safety netting decreased by 4 percentage points between 2014 and 2018. This could reflect fewer patients consulting multiple times pre-referral, or that safety netting is under recorded. There was a slightly more modest reduction in the time from presentation to diagnosis compared to the primary care interval. This may be attributable to progress in primary care diagnostic processes not being matched by capacity increases in secondary care diagnostic pathways. 23% of all diagnoses were considered to have had an avoidable delay by GPs. Although results are from 2018, they align with more recent evidence, data and insight and therefore have important implications for both health professionals and leaders in policy, the NHS and government. |
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New Remote Consultations webpage View our new webpage on Remote Consultations for primary care professionals. With remote consultations now more commonplace since the COVID-19 pandemic, this webpage aims to provide top tips on getting the most out of remote consultations and to help GPs and GP surgeries ensure equitable access to primary care for all patients. |
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| View our updated bowel cancer resource April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month. To support health professionals, we have updated our two-page GP resource on the recognition, referral and management of suspected bowel cancer. This guide provides information around bowel cancer and FIT, as well as tips and resources for GPs on both bowel cancer screening and symptomatic patients. |
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| | NB Medical Webinars CRUK and NB Medical Education deliver a series of free webinars for GPs and health professionals to support the early diagnosis and prevention of cancer. In the last year, we have delivered webinars on Bowel Cancer, Urological Cancers and Health Inequalities. All three webinars are available to access on-demand for 12 months after the webinar has taken place. Our webinars are worth 1 CPD credit each. |
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| | Cancer in the UK report This year on World Cancer Day, CRUK published the ‘Cancer in the UK: Overview 2023’ report which shows that, if current trends continue, there will be half a million new cases of cancer diagnosed in the UK every year by 2040. The report sets out the top-line view of key challenges facing cancer services and people affected by cancer, highlights where we are making progress, and acts as a call to action for a long-term plan to tackle these challenges.
CRUK has also published a blog which dives into where the UK stands, what is behind the rise in cancer cases, and how we can overcome the challenges highlighted in the report. Devolved nation summaries are also available. |
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| If you have any feedback on the newsletter or if you would like to contact the Strategic Evidence team email us here. |
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