Understanding patient experiences after an urgent referral to the upper gastrointestinal urgent suspected cancer referral pathway where no cancer is diagnosed.

Lead Applicant: Oksana Kryshevich

Lead Member: Exeter

The aim of this project is to establish a new Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) group of four members to support the qualitative arm of my PhD project. The study explores the experiences of patients who have been urgently referred to the suspected upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancer pathway but did not receive a cancer diagnosis. This population is rarely represented in cancer research, as the focus is typically on patients diagnosed with cancer.

The PPIE group will be recruited to co-design the qualitative phase of the project, which involves interviews with patients who have experienced the referral process. As no existing PPIE group represents this lived experience, it will be developed from the ground up. This includes developing and distributing recruitment materials and establishing connections with members of the community. In particular, efforts to include people less likely to be involved in research will be made, such as individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds and younger populations. Recruitment will include targeted social media posts to reach a younger audience, visiting places of worship in Exeter and Newton Abbott, reaching out to the Exeter Refugee Centre as well as attending community events at local community centres. These activities will build upon existing community connections.

Once recruitment is complete, the proposed activities are:

• A meeting to introduce the research and its aims, understand PPIE members’ perspectives on the value and importance of the study and co-design research questions for the qualitative interviews.
• A meeting to collaboratively design recruitment materials for participants in the qualitative interviews, such as fliers, posters, patient information leaflets and consent forms.
• A meeting to review and pilot the draft interview questions (developed from the co-designed research questions).

The recruitment for participants to join this PPIE group would start in mid-January. As the protocol for the qualitative study is in the process of being written, the meetings with PPIE members will begin as soon as possible. The meetings will be spaced 2 months apart, and the final meeting to pilot the interview questions is anticipated to be in late November or early December 2026.

Amount: £1,280