OBJECTIVES: To assess the impact of Public Health England's recent 'Be clear on cancer: Blood in the pee' mass media campaign on suspected cancer referral burden and new cancer diagnosis.
METHODS: A retrospective cohort study design was used; for two distinct time periods, August 2012 to May 2013 and August 2013 to May 2014, all referrals deemed to be at risk of urological cancer by the referring primary health care physician to Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust were screened. Data points collected were: age and sex, whether the referral was for visible haematuria, non-visible haematuria or other suspected urological cancer. In addition to referral data, hospital episode data for all new renal cell, and upper and lower tract transitional cell carcinoma, as well as testicular and prostate cancer diagnoses for the same time periods were obtained.
RESULTS: Over the campaign period and the subsequent three months, the number of haematuria referrals increased by 92% (p=0.013) when compared to the same period a year earlier. This increase in referrals was not associated with a significant corresponding rise in cancer diagnosis; instead changes of 26.8% (p=0.56) and -3.3% (p=0.84) were seen in renal and transitional cell carcinomas respectively.
CONCLUSION: This study has demonstrated that the 'Be clear on cancer: Blood in pee' mass media campaign significantly increased the number of new suspected cancer referrals, but no significant change in the diagnosis of target cancers across a large catchment. Mass media campaigns are expensive; require significant planning and appropriate implementation and while the findings of this study do not challenge their fundamental objective, more work needs to be done to understand why no significant change in target cancers were observed. Further consideration should also be given to the increased referral burden that results from these campaigns such that pre-emptive strategies, including educational and process mapping, across primary and secondary care can be implemented.
Written by:
Hughes-Hallett A, Browne D, Mensah E, Vale J, Mayer E. Are you the author?
Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College, London; Department of Urology, Imperial College Healthcare Trust, London; Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College, London.
Reference: BJU Int. 2015 Jun 13. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1111/bju.13205
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 26072663
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