Recruiting for lung cancer screening
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A qualitative study to explore the experiences and challenges in recruiting patients for a lung health clinic in South East London
IRAS ID
241995
Contact name
Gillian Selman
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Guy's & St Thomas' Foundation NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 3 days
Research summary
Lung cancer is the second most common cancer amongst men and women, after prostate cancer and breast cancer, respectively. Cigarette smoke remains the greatest causative agent and is the main cause in approximately 90% of patients.
Survival rates for lung cancer are dependent on the stage of lung cancer at the time of diagnosis. Patients who experience symptoms of lung cancer are often identified with lung cancer in the late stages, where surgery for curative intent is less likely (Kauczor, 2015). The symptoms associated with the identification of lung cancer are often nonspecific,
making clinical decisions to suspect lung cancer difficult. Identification of lung cancer in patients who are symptom-free could improve early stage diagnosis and decrease mortality, however, studies have shown that uptake in lung screening studies has been poor.GP practices, community pharmacies, smoking cessation clinics and respiratory clinics are potential avenues to identify and recruit patients who are likely to be at high risk of lung cancer. This research project will be the first qualitative study in the UK examining the understandings and opinions of GPs, pharmacists and smoking cessation clinics and nurses within respiratory clinics. The inclusion of primary, secondary and community care is a novel feature. Semi-structured face-to-face or telephone interviews will be conducted with open-ended questions to examine the perspectives, beliefs and suggestions of participants.
This study will try to evaluate the reasons why these recruiters engage or do not engage in recruiting primary care patients for a lung health clinic at Guy's and St.Thomas' Hospital. By understanding the factors that encourage or discourage recruiters in the primary, secondary and community care in identifying and recruiting patients for lung cancer screening and exploring the attitudes and considerations they may have for this role will improve future recruitment and engagement strategies in lung cancer screening
REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NW/0190
Date of REC Opinion
22 Mar 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion