Phase 2 - Proactive familial breast cancer risk assessment in primary care: feasibility of an optimised intervention to improve identification
- 1 October 2013 to 30 September 2014
- Project No: 206
- Funding round: FR 8
- Cancer
National guidelines on how to identify women at familial risk of breast cancer were issued in 2004 and revised earlier this year. However some women with a high risk, particularly younger women and those from less educated and minority backgrounds, are not being identified. In contrast, other women at average risk are inappropriately referred to specialist services. This study aims to develop a better pro-active approach. It will use a family history questionnaire already tested for effectiveness combined with decision-making software to calculate breast cancer risk and to better target referral to specialist services (the intervention). We will compare what happens now (usual care) with a proactive way of identifying women aged 30 to 60 with familial breast cancer risk involving postal invitation to all eligible women, and invitations during general practice consultations.
This study will: (1) develop and refine the intervention in women aged 30 to 60 in primary care (2) use a combination of different research methods to begin to understand the benefits to the NHS of using the intervention. We will use the results of this study to inform the design of a large-scale trial to assess the benefits and harms of a primary-care based proactive intervention to improve the referral and management of women at increased risk of breast cancer.