The FOLLOW UP Study v1.0

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  The FOLLOW UP study - a natural experiment estimating the clinical and cost-effectiveness of follow up strategies after curative treatment for prostate cancer

• IRAS ID

  342362

• Contact name

  Rakesh Heer

• Contact email

  r.heer@imperial.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Imperial College London

• Duration of Study in the UK

  3 years, 11 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  Over 20,000 people a year in the UK have surgery or radiotherapy to cure their prostate cancer, with regular check-ups thereafter. There are four strategies to these regular checkups; these vary across the country and we do not know which is best:

  1. Check-ups performed in hospital outpatients by the same team that provided treatment
  2. Regular review by their GP with referral to hospital as necessary
  3. Planned shared care between general practice and hospital follow up
  4. Remote support and patient training to provide checks on themselves (self-care) and reaching out to a doctor or a nurse when required

  Our study will compare these approaches to establish which is best for patients and makes the best use of NHS resources.

  We will observe what happens in routine NHS practice using routinely collected NHS data on approximately 100,000 people treated for prostate cancer. We will follow these people for a minimum of 3 years after treatment (maximum of 7 complete years) to compare the follow-up strategies in terms of:

  a. safety, defined as timely management of recurrence disease while the cancer is still at a curable early stage; and
  b. effective management of side effects between follow up strategies.

  As the treatments for prostate cancer can have side effects, we will use a survey to find out whether these occur, how bad they are and how they are managed. The survey will be administered by Quality Health Ltd (IQVIA).

  We will interview patients to understand their lived experiences of follow up (this work is detailed in a separate qualitative protocol and is not part of this application). Based on what they tell us, we will develop a survey to understand preferences for the different follow up strategies, which will be distributed to a sample of men undergoing follow-up for prostate cancer.

• REC name

  London - Chelsea Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  25/LO/0753

• Date of REC Opinion

  17 Oct 2025

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion