Learn how NICE's healthtech guidance is accelerating NHS adoption of a simple bowel cancer test, preventing 140,000 unnecessary urgent referrals a year while keeping cancer detection rates stable.
Bowel cancer is the second biggest cancer killer in the UK. Early detection significantly increases survival rates, reducing the need for intensive treatment and offering a high probability of a complete cure (around 90% for stage 1). That is why getting the right people into the right pathway quickly matters so much.
The faecal immunochemical test (FIT) helps to do exactly that. It’s a simple at-home test that detects tiny amounts of blood in poo. Collecting the sample takes minutes. A positive result triggers urgent further investigation. A negative result means we can often reassure patients and consider less urgent investigations or avoid unnecessary procedures.
FIT identifies people at high risk before they become more seriously unwell and brings them into the right pathway at the right time. But it does something equally important for the majority of patients: it gives them faster answers, and for many, the reassurance that they do not need any further investigation at all.
Nobody wants a colonoscopy unless they really have to have one. FIT helps us support a decision to avoid that and for most patients, that's a real relief. It also means we can direct colonoscopies to the people who are most likely to benefit, freeing up capacity across the system.
The evidence is clear and now NICE guidance is helping to drive adoption across the country.
Lessons from the North East: early adoption in action
We began using FIT for symptomatic patients early, building on NICE’s 2017 diagnostics guidance, which recommended offering FIT to adults with certain low-risk symptoms. When strong evidence emerged supporting its use for people meeting the urgent suspected cancer criteria, backed by both the British Society of Gastroenterology and the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, we were well placed to act. There was real enthusiasm from secondary care colleagues to use FIT in the cancer pathway. As the primary care lead, my role was to make sure GPs felt supported to use it.
To make it work in practice, we needed a system that was consistent, reliable and easy to use. We consolidated all testing through a single lab in Gateshead and adopted a fully postal process. Kits go directly to patients and straight back to the lab. Every kit is pre-labelled and sent out with consistent patient information, reviewed for accessibility by our local learning disability network. If you are housebound or live in a rural community, you are closer to a postbox than a GP surgery. The kit comes to you.
We also built safety netting into the process from day one. If a kit is not returned within 14 days, an automatic alert goes to the GP. A second alert follows at 28 days. The system does not rely on busy healthcare staff remembering to chase a result.
Excerpt from the official page. The original is authoritative. Continue reading at UK NICE ↗