Cancer Safety Netting (CASNET)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Safety NEtting in general practice for diagnosing or ruling out CAncer (CASNET): an interview study with patients and General Practitioners.
IRAS ID
201534
Contact name
Brian Nicholson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Background\n\nDiagnostic safety-netting is regarded as an essential primary care consultation technique to ensure timely re-appraisal of a patient’s problem to prevent delays in diagnosis. It is especially important in situations where uncertainty exists about the cause of a patients symptoms or where a high-risk diagnosis such as cancer is suspected. In general practice safety-netting can include written or verbal advice from the GP or systems in the practice to identify abnormal test results. Safety-netting is included in the 2015 NICE guidance on suspected cancer in primary care but there is almost no research published to detail the key components of effective and appropriate safety-netting in this context. \n\nAim\n\nTo understand current safety-netting practice for patients being monitored for suspected cancer in primary care.\n\nMethods\n\nWe propose interviewing GP’s and patients to understand current clinical practice: \n\n1. Interviews with individual GPs to explore in-depth their views on safety–netting for patients being monitored for suspected cancer in primary care,and on proposed safety netting recommendations.\n\n2. Interviews with patients to explore their experiences of safety–netting for patients being monitored with symptoms of cancer in primary care, and to ask their views on proposed safety netting recommendations.\n\n\n\nHow the results of this research will be used\n\nAll findings will be fed back to the NHS National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Cancer Research UK, Macmillan, and the National Cancer Research Institute Primary Care Clinical Studies Group in a format accessible to each group to inform recommendations and resources on safety netting for cancer in general practice. We will submit our findings for peer-reviewed publication, and the results will also inform a further programme of work to estimate the resources required to implement each of the safety-netting recommendations in clinical practice.\n
REC name
London - Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/1468
Date of REC Opinion
31 Aug 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion