Guide for Prioritisation of Patients for Referral to Breast Clinics

NCT04474652 · Status: SUSPENDED · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 4000

Last updated 2020-07-17

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

GPs in primary care in England currently refer over 2.17 million patients per year with vague symptoms to the urgent cancer referral pathway. While this catches over 150,000 cancer cases each year, 93% of the referred patients do not have cancer. For breast cancer, GPs refer 343,000 cases per year. Each of these patients are referred to a one stop clinic for diagnosis. The Leeds teaching Hospitals' Trusts' Breast Unit, receives 10,000 per year, with only 5% of patients actually being diagnosed with cancer.

The breast cancer pathway involves a triple assessment process, which includes a clinical examination, imaging (mammogram or ultrasound) and possibly a biopsy test. It is a particularly expensive process as it is an imagingintense pathway; this places considerable strain on NHS diagnostic facilities. Small changes will not be enough to solve this problem - a new approach is needed. The purpose of this study is to see if we can develop a blood test that can support doctors in identifying patients for whom the likelihood of having breast cancer is extremely low. This would avoid unnecessary referral for those patients to the one stop clinic. Patients with higher chances of suspected breast cancer would be referred to the one stop clinic in the usual way.

Key to the idea of safely "ruling-out" patients is that the test must not miss patients who do have cancer. By measuring a broad range of indicators (markers) in blood, the test will provide a more accurate picture of the underlying biology. The test is also being developed within the NHS, so that it can be adopted quickly into NHS computer systems and laboratories to maximise patient benefit, whilst being held to the NHS's high standards for clinical evidence and value.

Conditions

Interventions

OTHER

Single Blood Draw from each participant

Health Professionals will seek informed consent and take a single blood collection from the participant. This will take place during the patient's visit to the breast one stop clinic as part of their routine urgent breast referral pathway.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Innovate UK

    collaborator OTHER_GOV
  • PinPoint Data Science Ltd.

    collaborator UNKNOWN
  • The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

    lead OTHER

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
100 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2020-02-12
Primary Completion
2021-02-11
Completion
2023-02-11

Countries

  • United Kingdom

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT04474652 on ClinicalTrials.gov