Despite significant advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer over the last decade, outcomes for bone and soft tissue sarcoma patients remain comparatively poor. Diagnosing sarcoma earlier is essential to improve patient outcomes. As almost all sarcoma patients are diagnosed after seeing their General Practitioner (GP), research is needed to find new ways to diagnose sarcoma earlier in this setting.
In 2024, the Improving Sarcoma Diagnosis grant call was jointly shaped and funded by BCRT and Sarcoma UK, with extensive input from patients and family members, as well as experts across the fields of sarcoma and early diagnosis. The ultimate goal of this funding collaboration is to drive forwards research with the potential to lead to earlier, more accurate diagnosis of bone and soft tissue sarcoma, drawing on the latest evidence, technology and available data, to address what has been highlighted as a major priority for both BCRT’s and Sarcoma UK’s communities.
Professor Lyratzopoulos, Dr Rafiq, and Professor Strauss, based across University College London and University College London Cancer Institute, have been awarded funding to progress the vital research they have been conducting in this area.
Their previous research showed that sarcoma patients in the UK and Australia often have multiple GP consultations before they are referred to a specialist, with patients with bone sarcoma experiencing one of the highest number of GP consultations before diagnosis among all rare cancer types.
Their research also found that, in Australia, sarcoma patients start to visit their GP more and have imaging investigations from 6 months before their cancer is diagnosed, with around half of patients having four or more GP consultations in this period and many being sent by their GP for different or repeat imaging tests. Patients with sarcoma are also less likely to be referred via urgent cancer pathways than other cancers. These findings all suggest there may be potential opportunities to diagnose some patients with sarcoma earlier in general practice.
What are the aims of this research project?
This project will answer three questions:
- Where do potential delays occur in the pathway to diagnosing sarcoma, particularly focusing on GP imaging requests and referrals?
- How do patients with sarcoma present in general practice and what signs and symptoms can help detect patients with underlying sarcoma?
- What commonly used GP blood tests are early markers of sarcoma and can these be used to detect patients earlier?
The project will use nationwide English GP data linked to hospital and cancer registry data to examine the pathway to diagnosis for sarcoma patients in detail, and identify novel opportunities to diagnose sarcoma earlier.
How could this project improve treatment options for primary bone cancer patients in the future?
This project will for the first time use linked GP data to identify new opportunities to diagnose sarcoma earlier in general practice and improve outcomes for sarcoma patients by:
- Identifying the current barriers to prompt sarcoma diagnosis to streamline referral pathways enabling faster diagnosis.
- Identifying new symptoms and blood tests that are signals of underlying sarcoma. These will update NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) clinical guidelines to improve GP recognition of possible sarcoma and ensure GPs refer patients with possible sarcoma earlier.
- Providing the evidence to support future research developing the findings into tools that help GPs detect patients with possible sarcoma earlier using information in their electronic health records, further enabling faster referrals and diagnosis.
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