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An evaluation of the impact of large-scale interventions to raise public awareness of a lung cancer symptom.
- Source :
- British Journal of Cancer; 1/6/2015, Vol. 112 Issue 1, p207-216, 10p, 8 Charts
- Publication Year :
- 2015
-
Abstract
- Introduction:Long-term lung cancer survival in England has improved little in recent years and is worse than many countries. The Department of Health funded a campaign to raise public awareness of persistent cough as a lung cancer symptom and encourage people with the symptom to visit their GP. This was piloted regionally within England before a nationwide rollout.Methods:To evaluate the campaign's impact, data were analysed for various metrics covering public awareness of symptoms and process measures, through to diagnosis, staging, treatment and 1-year survival (available for regional pilot only).Results:Compared with the same time in the previous year, there were significant increases in metrics including: public awareness of persistent cough as a lung cancer symptom; urgent GP referrals for suspected lung cancer; and lung cancers diagnosed. Most encouragingly, there was a 3.1 percentage point increase (P<0.001) in proportion of non-small cell lung cancer diagnosed at stage I and a 2.3 percentage point increase (P<0.001) in resections for patients seen during the national campaign, with no evidence these proportions changed during the control period (P=0.404, 0.425).Conclusions:To our knowledge, the data are the first to suggest a shift in stage distribution following an awareness campaign for lung cancer. It is possible a sustained increase in resections may lead to improved long-term survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- NON-small-cell lung carcinoma
LUNG cancer diagnosis
SYMPTOMS
PRIMARY care
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00070920
- Volume :
- 112
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- British Journal of Cancer
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 100272853
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.2014.596