Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Empress: NAEDI Cancer diagnosis via emergency presentation: a case control study (colorectal and lung cancer)

People Involved

Project Description

Cancer remains one of the UK’s biggest health issues, both in terms of morbidity and mortality. In recent years there has been increasing interest in the pathway to diagnosis, as international data have shown that one year survival figures for many cancers are poorer in the UK than in comparable countries. Given this, it is important to target groups where some of the worst outcomes have been identified, as there is potentially most to gain from understanding pathways to diagnosis for such patients. It is already well established that for the majority of cancers, diagnosis within the context of an emergency presentation results in poorer outcomes. If we are to develop interventions that seek to prevent or reduce such diagnoses, we first need to understand more about what happens prior to presentation to hospital as an emergency. The purpose of this study therefore, is to investigate what happens to patients in the period before presentation as an emergency on the ‘route to diagnosis’. As such we situate the proposed research in the development phase of the MRC framework for complex interventions to provide an evidence base for emergency presentation and further develop an existing explanatory model for the process of cancer diagnosis.

Since 2000, GPs in the UK have been able to refer all urgent cases of suspected cancer under the Two Week Wait (2WW) pathway, whereby patients will be seen by a specialist within two weeks from the date that referral is made. In 2006-8, 26% of all cancers were diagnosed by this route and as this can be considered the ‘gold standard’ for initiating cancer diagnosis in the UK it will be used as the comparator in this study.

Project Acronym Empress
Status Project Complete
Funder(s) CRUK Cancer Research UK
Value £259,346.00
Project Dates Oct 1, 2015 - Sep 30, 2020

You might also like

TRANSFORM: Reducing Inequalities in Cancer Outcomes in Yorkshire: Realising our potential for innovation in Diagnosis, Patient Management, Survivorship and Palliative Care Research Sep 1, 2017 - Dec 31, 2026
The death rate is higher in Yorkshire than the rest of England resulting in about 200 extra deaths each year of which more than half are in Hull. There are other significant cancer outcome inequalities between different groups; for example poorer pe... Read More about TRANSFORM: Reducing Inequalities in Cancer Outcomes in Yorkshire: Realising our potential for innovation in Diagnosis, Patient Management, Survivorship and Palliative Care Research.

PEOPLE: Primary care and community Engagement to Optimise time to Presentation with Lung cancEr symptoms in HULL Jun 1, 2017 - Jun 30, 2023
More people are diagnosed with and die from lung cancer in Hull than any other place in Yorkshire. Our aim is to improve earlier diagnosis of lung cancer by [1] getting people to see their doctor if they get lung symptoms and [2] getting GPs to refe... Read More about PEOPLE: Primary care and community Engagement to Optimise time to Presentation with Lung cancEr symptoms in HULL.

CANAssess: Reducing inequalities in care for people with cancer and palliative care needs: a programme of work for cancer patients and caregivers in the community based in Yorkshire Sep 1, 2016 - Jan 30, 2019
People with cancer need good access to palliative care to relieve distressing symptoms, but some get better access than others. Developed in Australia, the Needs Assessment Tool - Progressive Disease Cancer (NAT:PD-C) is a tested, "everyday practice"... Read More about CANAssess: Reducing inequalities in care for people with cancer and palliative care needs: a programme of work for cancer patients and caregivers in the community based in Yorkshire.