FIT-East Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Establishing the diagnostic accuracy and acceptability of faecal immunochemical tests (FITs) to triage patients with lower abdominal symptoms for suspected colorectal cancer referrals in primary care: East of England Cancer Alliance FIT programme evaluation (FIT-East Study)
IRAS ID
254672
Contact name
Fiona Walter
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Cambridge
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Bowel (colorectal) cancer, the fourth most common cancer in the UK, is second leading cause of death from cancer. It is difficult to make a timely diagnosis because the same symptoms occur with other conditions.
The government’s guidance through the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), recommends that, if patients visit their local doctor with certain worrying symptoms, they should be referred urgently to hospital for further tests to look into the bowel using a narrow, flexible, telescopic camera (colonoscopy). However, many patients who have bowel cancer have other, more common symptoms such as change of toilet habit, weight loss or tiredness. New NICE guidance suggests a new test could be used for these people – the Faecal (poo) Immunochemical Test, or FIT. The FIT-poo test measures the amount of blood in a poo sample which may suggest bleeding in the bowel caused by cancer. But it is not known what amount of blood in a poo sample should lead to a colonoscopy for these patients. The new guideline uses the amount of blood found in patients sent urgently to hospital for a colonoscopy and amounts found in patients without problems who took part in bowel screening. These results may not apply to the patients with less worrying problems.
Our study aims to find out how the FIT-poo test can help family doctors make decisions about patients with less worrying bowel problems. The study will guide decisions about which patients need to go to hospital for colonoscopy and which patients should stay under the care of their family doctor. We will also report on whether the FIT-poo test needs different cut-off levels for different patient groups, as well as whether the test is acceptable for patients and the local healthcare team of doctors, nurses and administration staff.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/EE/0036
Date of REC Opinion
25 Feb 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion