The 'be clear on bladder cancer campaign' significant increase in referrals with no change in urological cancers diagnosed

Abstract

Introduction & Objectives: As part of the National 'Be Clear on Cancer' campaign the 'Blood in your pee' campaign launched in October 2013. Using media the public were advised to see their GP if they had noticed blood in their urine. We aimed to evaluate the impact of this campaign on two-week wait referrals and the resulting diagnosis of urological malignancy at two NHS trusts; Derby Hospitals Trust and Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust. Secondly, to evaluate the socio-economic background of patients referred. Material & Methods: Suspected cancer patients in the three months pre-campaign (June-Aug 13) and post-campaign (Nov 13-Jan 14), were included. Demographics, investigations, and diagnosis were recorded. Postcodes were cross referenced with Index of Multiple Deprivation 2010 scores. Nominal Data was tested for significance using a Chi-square test and continuous data using the Students t-test using Microsoft Excel 2013. Significance was considered at P < 0.05. Results: The number of Urology 2ww referrals increased by 37% from 723 to 988. Significantly fewer patients referred after the campaign were diagnosed with a urological malignancy: 13% vs 22% P < 0.001. The mean Index of Multiple Deprivation score of referrals did not significantly change after the campaign: 20.3 vs 20.2 P = 0.42 and was not significantly different from the East Midlands average: 20.2 vs 19.94 P = 0.2. Conclusions: This campaign has significantly increased referrals without increasing the number of malignancies diagnosed. There is little evidence as to the efficacy of current untargeted cancer awareness campaigns and further work is needed in order to improve their pick up of undiagnosed malignancies.