Three cancer projects have been selected as part of the NHS DigiTrials initiative, which aims to sign up tens of thousands of volunteers over the next two years to help improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients.
The biggest trial being supported, BEST4 Heartburn Health, requires 120,000 volunteers to help test a new screening technique for oesophageal cancer, which involves swallowing a compressed sponge on a string to extract cells from the food pipe.
The test reduces the need for an invasive endoscopy and involves patients swallowing a small capsule-shaped sponge on a string that collects cell samples for analysis before being extracted using the string.
Previous studies have shown the device detected 10 times more cases of Barrett's oesophagus, which can lead to cancer, compared with routine GP care.
A further 20,000 volunteers are needed for MyMelanoma, which will carry out the largest study of melanoma ever performed, to improve understanding of melanoma skin cancer and its treatment.
The PROTECT-C trial, funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research, will also recruit 5,000 women to take part in saliva-based genetic tests to check their genetic risk of developing ovarian, breast, endometrial and colorectal cancer.
An additional study being supported by DigiTrials, the Children's Surgery Outcome Reporting project, will focus on the care given to children who need complex surgery shortly after birth. The project, which is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, also needs around 4,000 volunteers to improve the experience of children undergoing surgery.
Vin Diwakar, National Director of Transformation at NHS England, said: ‘Clinical trials and other studies can often struggle to find and recruit eligible patients – particularly those facing the greatest inequalities – so the NHS's DigiTrials service is able to invite people who are suitable for these research studies faster, fairly and at scale.'
He added: ‘The trials will see the NHS working with leading academics across the country on research which could transform cancer treatment and benefit patients for decades to come.'
The NHS DigiTrials recruitment service, which is managed by NHS England, identifies NHS patients who might be suitable for a certain trial and contacts them to see if they would like to take part.
Eligible people will start receiving letters and text messages encouraging them to join the research projects from this month.
