Best4 Screening Study

The UK has the highest incidence of oesophageal cancer in the world. Oesophageal cancer is the 14th most common cancer and the 7th most common cause of death by cancer in the UK, accounting for 3% of all new cancer diagnoses.
Despite this, it is estimated that 59% of oesophageal cancers are preventable. Oesophageal cancer is usually diagnosed at later stages, when symptoms are more apparent. Seven in ten cases of Oesophageal cancer are diagnosed at a late stage, which heavily impacts on survival with an overall 5-year survival rate of 15-20%. When broken down by stage, stage 1 has a 55% survival rate compared to just 15% in stage 3 (Table 1), highlighting how important early diagnosis is to survival of the disease.

This project is supported by Cancer Research UK (SEBSTF-2021\100036, CRUK/22/005) and the Secretary of State for health and social care (entity representing the National Institute for Health Research) (NIHR135565).
The trial is jointly sponsored by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Cambridge. Cancer Research UK and King’s College London Cancer Prevention Trials Unit (CPTU) is responsible for the day-to-day operations of this final part of a three-phase trial.
This project will build on the previous two phases, with the endpoint post trial being adopting the Cytosponge into mainstream practice throughout the UK. In this phase, iPLATO will send a text message to patients, within the research region, who have a record of at least six months of acid-suppressant medications within the past year.
Eligible patients will be identified and extracted via PDS (subject to NHS Digital approval). The patients will be provided information regarding the BEST4 Screening Study and invited to complete a short online survey.
The survey will ask a few health-related questions, seek consent for sharing their information, and ask them if they would like to participate in the trial. Based on their responses, a randomised selection of patients, will then be sent a follow-up text message inviting them to book an appointment for oesophageal cancer screening (via the Cytosponge test) using iPLATO secure online booking system.

This is a fully funded initiative to use text messaging technology to send out reminders to patients to invite them for Oesophageal Screening in order to improve uptake.

To participate in this project, please click on the ‘Participate’ button below to access the online consent form: