Summary
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Background:
Bowel cancer is one of the commonest cancers worldwide. Earlier detection results in better outcomes for patients and longer survival. It is a challenge for GPs to diagnose bowel cancer and many symptomatic patients are sent to hospital for tests to rule it out. This is normally a colonoscopy, which is expensive, unpleasant and can be harmful. An accurate faecal test for blood (FIT) has just been introduced as a diagnostic tool for GPs. We are currently working to develop a new blood test for bowel cancer using Raman spectroscopy. Early results indicate that the blood test is very good at correctly identifying patients with bowel cancer. By combining this with the faecal sample test, we hope to further improve its accuracy. We plan to investigate whether the Raman blood test and faeces test combination is acceptable to both patients and their GPs to help them diagnose bowel cancer.
Research aims:
To qualitatively explore patient and health professional attitudes and experiences with combined Raman-FIT testing as an alternative to colonoscopy.
We also wish to:
- Determine whether patients comply with the requirements of the combined Raman-FIT test procedure
- Establish the negative predictive value (NPV) of the combined Raman-FIT test procedure in a symptomatic primary care population.
- Establish that moving the point of diagnosis from secondary care testing to primary care is acceptable to both patients and care providers.
- To explore the feasibility of progression to a full trial.
What we hope to discover: By interviewing patients and doctors we hope to discover that the having the simple blood and faecal tests in primary care are an acceptable alternative to having invasive testing in hospital. We hope to learn how accurate the test needs to be in order to be accepted as an alternative way to test for bowel cancer.
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Contact Details
Trial Manager / Lead Contact: Study Manager / Lead Contact: Dr Kayleigh Nelson
Phone: 01792 606621
Email: craft@swansea.ac.uk