What is this study about?Ìý
Cancer diagnosis can be delayed in primary care. Our goal is to help general practices recognise possible cancers earlier, leading to better patient outcomes.
We have developed a unique educational and behavioural package called ‘ThinkCancer!’. This involves a three-hour workshop for all staff in a practice team. We have tested ‘ThinkCancer!’ in a small pilot study in Wales, which showed that it can work well in primary care. We learnt important lessons about how the workshop should be delivered, and the best ways to collect information from practices.
Our aim now is to undertake a larger trial with 76 practices to test how well ThinkCancer! works and whether it is cost-effective for the NHS. We will assess the effect of ThinkCancer! by measuring the time between a patient first contacting their general practice with a potential cancer symptom and their referral to the hospital. ÌýA reduction in this time is known to be linked with an earlier stage of cancer at diagnosis, needing less treatment, and costing the NHS less overall. Ìý
Contact
Ìý Mrs Nic Nikolic n.nikolic@bangor.ac.uk
Sponsor
ÌìÌì³Ô¹ÏÌý
Funder
Cancer Research Wales and North West Cancer Research