Dr Richard McNally
Newcastle Upon Tyne NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust
Awarded: £24,305
The challenge
Not enough is known about the impact that social inequality has on the diagnostic journey for all sarcoma patients. Gaining an understanding of the various routes patients take before getting to the point of diagnosis and how this can vary by demographic area is key to shaping how sarcoma may be diagnosed in the future.
How will this project tackle this challenge?
The project will examine the routes of diagnosis and survival factors, focusing on the link between poor diagnostic experiences and poorer treatment, rehabilitation and follow-up experiences.
As part of the study, the researchers will use two existing datasets: Public Health England’s Routes to Diagnosis dataset, which includes all bone and soft tissue sarcoma patients diagnosed in England in 2009-2014 that scrutinises diagnosis routes by deprivation, age, sex, and tumour type, as well as associations between diagnosis route and survival. The second dataset, Sarcoma UK’s National Sarcoma Survey, provides insight into variations in patient experience of diagnosis and how this links to treatment, rehabilitation and follow-up experiences.
What this means for people affected by sarcoma
The team hope that this research will provide evidence which will be used to shape healthcare interventions to encourage and support earlier diagnosis of sarcomas.
The project will examine the routes of diagnosis and survival factors, focusing on the link between poor diagnostic experiences and poorer treatment, rehabilitation and follow-up experiences.
