Clinical Lead: Dr Rachel Brown
Project Manager: Leah Pearson
Participating Primary Care Networks: Mendip, Frome, Rural Somerset, Devizes, North and South Gloucestershire, and Three Valleys (Hope House and Somer Valley Medical Group practices only).
Somerset, Wiltshire, Avon, and Gloucestershire (SWAG) Cancer Alliance have launched a national pilot with local GPs to help detect pancreatic cancer earlier, when treatment is likely to be more effective.
The initiative will run across two years as a pilot trial and will span 23 GP practices covering a patient population of over 210,000 people within SWAG Cancer Alliance footprint, with the potential to identify 90 additional patients for CT scans, potentially enabling 30 earlier-stage diagnoses of pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer ranks as the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths and remains one of the least survivable cancers. This is largely because most patients receive a diagnosis at a late stage. Early symptoms are often vague and non-specific, which leads to 75% of cases being identified at stage 3 or 4. As a result, only 7% of patients survive more than five years after diagnosis.
Data shows that only 19% of pancreatic cancers are currently diagnosed by primary care, and 50% via emergency presentation. This pilot will see SWAG working through GP practices across its network to take a more proactive approach to identifying patients at risk of pancreatic cancer, thanks to new funding delivered by NHS England.
One early indicator of pancreatic cancer is signs of new on-set diabetes and unexplained weight loss. Any patients over 60 years of age who are flagged with these two indicators will now be referred for an urgent CT scan to check for any signs of the disease.
Any patients over the age of 60 with the following to indicators will be referred for an urgent CT scan to check for any signs of the disease:
- New on-set diabetes
- Unexplained weight loss
Objectives
The intended impact of the pilot is that cancers will be diagnosed earlier, resulting in better patient outcomes. Furthermore, the case finding methodology will be thoroughly tested to evaluate the feasibility of further roll out with other patient cohorts. The national team are collecting regular data from the pancreatic case finding project and will conduct an evaluation throughout the two years.
