Helping people to prevent and understand cancer

Progress against the objectives we set last year – 2010/11 Drive progress on diagnosing cancer earlier through

co-leadership of theNational Awareness and EarlyDiagnosis Initiative (NAEDI). Thousands of lives could be saved each year if cancers were detected and treated sooner. We play an integral role in NAEDI, which promotes the earlier diagnosis of cancer, working with the Department of Health and the NHS. Our work ranges from producing leaflets that tell people about the key warning signs and symptoms of cancer, to research which helps identify and address why people experience delays between seeing their GP and getting the hospital appointment they need.

To help the NHS in England put its Cancer Strategy into action, we helped guide the delivery and evaluation of 59 projects promoting awareness and early diagnosis of lung, bowel and breast cancer. We also called for new policies that help raise awareness of cancer signs and symptoms and enable earlier diagnosis. These included the update of referral guidelines for different cancers and the obligatory collection of data detailing how far cancer has progressed at the point of diagnosis.

The government has committed more than £750 million over the next four years to promote earlier diagnosis and improve information and access to life-saving treatments in England.

More than £450 million of this has been committed to promoting earlier diagnosis – it will be used to promote NHS screening programmes, raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer, increase access to diagnostic tests at GP surgeries, and provide more testing and treatment in hospitals.

Continue to provide authoritative and up-to-date

information to people affected by cancer aswell as to professional audiences, including healthcare professionals, scientists and policy-makers. We helped thousands of people get the information they need to understand cancer and make appropriate decisions.

In November 2010 we relaunched our interactive patient discussion forum, Cancer Chat. The site now has better navigation, enabling patients to search for discussions about specific cancers and send private messages. Pilot online Q&A chats with our cancer nurses were very successful. We also promoted our helpline translation service, which allows people affected by cancer to have their questions answered in their first language.

Thanks to our successful partnership with the National Cancer Action Team, Macmillan Cancer Support and NHS Choices, information prescriptions for cancer are now used by English

Some of our objectives for 2011/12

Continue ourwork to prevent cancer andmake sure it is

diagnosed earlier –when treatment ismore likely to be successful – by: Investigating factors that influence how quickly a cancer diagnosis is made, and investing in communications to health professionals.

Exploring the most effective ways to promote information about the key warning signs of cancer – especially to those who are most at risk. We will work to tackle the reasons that stop people with cancer symptoms from going to their doctor.

Promoting healthy lifestyles to low-income communities through our Cancer Awareness Roadshows.

Raising awareness of what can be done to reduce cancer risk and how to spot cancer early.

Continue to improve our information about cancer

so that people understand their diagnosis and canmake informed decisions about treatment options by: Developing our information about cancer, treatments and trials so that as many people as possible can access it through social media channels and mobile devices.

08 / Annual Report and Accounts / Helping people to prevent and understand cancer

Supporting patients and their families with our cancer information helpline. We will also consider hosting regular Q&A sessions on our Cancer Chat forum.

Working with the National Cancer Action Team, Macmillan Cancer Support and NHS Choices, to drive forward information prescriptions – so that more patients are offered them by more trusts. We will also lead the evaluation of this programme across hospital trusts in England to ensure that cancer patients receive high-quality and timely information throughout their treatment.

For more on our prevention and information work aboutus.cancerresearchuk.org/information

Our CancerHelpUK website, which provides information

about cancer, treatment and trials, continued to be the most visited cancer website

in the UK, receiving more than 800,000 visits per month. www.cancerhelp.org.uk

healthcare trusts and are available on the NHS Choices website. This helps to ensure patients diagnosed with cancer are directed to high-quality and relevant information about services and treatments during their care.

More GPs, nurses and cancer specialists know about our patient and health information and are aware of how important early diagnosis is, thanks to our partnership with Doctors.net.uk, the UK’s largest network of doctors, and our mailings, leaflets and regular newsletters. We also helped NHS Evidence, a website for everyone working in health and social care, to publish our information so that it reaches a greater number of professional audiences.