Cancer is the commonest cause of death by illness for children and young people in the UK, and many experience long delays to diagnosis. Delayed diagnosis can lead to worse survival for patients and poorer long-term health for survivors.
As there are no screening options for children and young people or lifestyle measures that can be taken to stop childhood cancer, earliest possible detection of the signs and symptoms is the only way to make diagnosis happen more quickly.
Child Cancer Smart is based on the award-winning Better Safe than Tumour (formerly HeadSmart) campaign, led by the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre and the Brain Tumour Charity, which was associated with halving diagnosis times for children with brain tumours in the UK.
The project will use the same approach by developing high-quality guidance on cancers in children and young people, and producing awareness tools for a national awareness campaign to promote earlier diagnosis.
The campaign has multiple strands:
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Research
Research into what we currently know about the signs, symptoms, and diagnosis of children and young people’s cancers. These ‘systematic reviews’ will bring together all of the current high-quality information we have, to understand how children, teenagers and young adults.
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Resources
The development of resources for GPs, emergency medical practitioners, and other healthcare professionals, including clinical referral guidelines, e-learning modules, and decision support tools to help them understand what tests and scans might be needed to ensure a quick diagnosis.
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Awareness
Signs and symptoms awareness campaigns that will help parents, schools and the general public know how to spot childhood cancer.
How is Child Cancer Smart different?
Child Cancer Smart is evidence-based, and all of the advice in the campaign is based on data from the Childhood Cancer Diagnosis study and the systematic reviews and focus groups we have conducted.
We decided against using a 'Top 10 symptoms list’ approach because many of the most common symptoms of cancer in children and teenagers are the same as those of common illnesses. Instead, our symptoms are grouped by body part for parents and teenagers, and by cancer type for professionals so that 'clusters' of symptoms can be identified.
Help us to raise awareness
Child Cancer Smart is launching in phases so watch this space as more information will be uploaded monthly.
You can help us by sharing the campaign with friends and family, or by sharing the Child Cancer Smart content we post on our social media channels. The more people who we can reach with this campaign, the more young lives could potentially be saved through earlier diagnosis.
