Early cancer diagnosis and community pharmacies in deprived areas

One in two people in the United Kingdom will be diagnosed with cancer during their life. Patients most commonly present to general practice with cancer-related symptoms. However, they may present to other healthcare providers, for example, community pharmacies. Cancer is more frequent in deprived populations where patients find it most difficult to make an appointment to see their doctor. Exploring the available alternative settings for symptom detection for this population has the potential to improve cancer related statistics.

Community pharmacies are convenient, and they are geographically more accessible to the public within a 20-minute walk. Community pharmacies can undertake health campaigns, and they are contractually required to do so. Some of these initiatives can be cancer-related, and the outcomes of previous campaigns demonstrate their success.

International data suggest that it is feasible for community pharmacies to organise cancer screening or early diagnosis campaigns, and the public’s feedback is positive about such initiatives. However, there is a lack of data from large scale studies in the United Kingdom. In our recent publication we highlighted the need for an up-to-date systematic review of the literature and further work to be undertaken in this important subject that could address the health inequalities in cancer care in deprived areas.

We will do this by:

undertaking a systematic review to summarize the published international peer reviewed and other professional literature available about early cancer diagnosis in community pharmacies i) to describe what programs are possible to undertake, ii) to summarize their outcomes, iii) to describe barriers and facilitators to such programs, iv) to describe service users' and stakeholders' experience with such initiatives, and v) to explore if these differ between deprived areas and more affluent areas.

surveying community pharmacy staff to explore their usual practice to discuss patients’ symptoms when they seek to purchase over the counter medication to treat potential cancer symptoms, that could have less serious causes, of the most common cancer types (stomach, bowel, prostate and lung cancer)

The results of the systematic review will inform the development of the survey content, which will be distributed online to community pharmacies. A Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement group will inform the work packages and dissemination plan.

Our results will help to summarize the potential of community pharmacies’ role in contributing to early cancer diagnosis in deprived areas. Furthermore, we will gain an understanding of the everyday practice of community pharmacy staff when patients seek to purchase over-the-counter medication to treat potential symptoms of the most common cancer types.

The results will be distributed in academic journals and patient-facing domains.

Amount Awarded: £97,425