{"id":2501,"date":"2026-10-06T09:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T09:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/apex\/?p=2501"},"modified":"2026-10-06T09:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T09:29:09","slug":"cancer-diagnosis-and-detection-theme-blog-by-professor-gary-abel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/apex\/2026\/10\/06\/cancer-diagnosis-and-detection-theme-blog-by-professor-gary-abel\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancer diagnosis and detection theme blog, by Professor Gary Abel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Back in June APEx celebrated the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of academic primary care in Exeter. I had the privilege that day to review the work being done within the cancer theme and I thought it might be useful for anyone who wasn\u2019t able to be there on that day to put that review down in this blog. These thoughts have been augmented by some mapping out of our work by other members of the cancer theme recently, but the responsibility for any omissions or inaccuracies lies with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when I arrived in Exeter just over 10 years ago there was a man with a panchant for interesting shirts running the show. It seemed to me that this man was ably assisted by a small army of researchers called Sarah (and there have been so many Sarahs involved in cancer diagnosis research in Exeter over the years) as well as the odd Sal and Tani. And if one were being flippant, one might point out that the pinnacle of their achievements was to create a mouse mat or two. Of course that is flippant because what they really did was map the predictive value of many many features of possible cancer research that was literally used to rewrite the book commonly known as NG12 (or the NICE Guidance for Suspected cancer: recognition and referral to give it its full title). Things haven\u2019t stopped there. These studies have resulted in cancer Risk Assessment Tools, and we are now trailing embedding these in GP clinical record systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But these days we do a lot more in our efforts to improve the earlier diagnosis of cancer. We are testing existing and new tests. Whether that is the results routine blood tests like platelet counts or anaemia, existing cancer specific tests like CA125 for ovarian cancer, PSA for prostate cancer and FIT tests for colorectal cancer, or even the new crop of multi-cancer detection tests, our work is focussed on exploring the diagnostic performance of these tests in primary care and how they can be used effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are also studying how the health service impacts the diagnosis of cancer. This includes work on inequalities in cancer diagnosis, whether by ethnicity, deprivation or gender, trying to unpick what is driving these and how they might be addressed. We\u2019ve been looking at referrals to see how often GPs follow referral guidelines, and how the use of different referral pathways impacts cancer diagnosis. We also looked at the role of comorbidities, and found contrary to the expectation of many that patients without comorbidities are the most likely to be diagnosed at advanced stage. We are now trying to unpick that finding and discover what is driving it. Related to this is the role of miss-diagnosed patients who may have had an interim diagnosis that led to a delay in finding cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underpinning much of this work are our efforts to capitalise on the power of big data. We have been using data derived from electronic patient records for many years, but we are expanding to new areas including genomics and artificial intelligence. We are using these data and more to develop and improve risk algorithms to help inform when we should look for cancer, and when we should reassure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our ultimate aim is to generate evidence that can influence practice and policy and improve cancer diagnosis in this country and beyond. But we can\u2019t do this alone. We work with collaborators across the globe, from single researchers to large consortia.  We rely on the data generated by patients and the NHS. But more than that we need to work with the public to inform our research and we are rethinking public and patient involvement and engagement. We are developing involvement approaches where power dynamics are flattened, and we are positioned in grassroots communities as partners.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Back in June APEx celebrated the 50th anniversary of academic primary care in Exeter. I had the privilege that day to review the work being done within the cancer theme and I thought it might be useful for anyone who wasn\u2019t able to be there on that day to put that review down in this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":989,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCancer diagnosis and detection theme blog, by Professor Gary Abel - Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/apex\/2026\/10\/06\/cancer-diagnosis-and-detection-theme-blog-by-professor-gary-abel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cancer diagnosis and detection theme blog, by Professor Gary Abel - Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Back in June APEx celebrated the 50th anniversary of academic primary care in Exeter. 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