Understanding missed diagnostic opportunities in patients with bladder and kidney cancer (360G-Wellcome-211180_Z_18_Z)

Early diagnosis of cancer is important for improved survival and patient experience. Reaching a diagnosis needs correct and timely collection of information from consultations, tests and follow-up of results. However, diagnosis can be difficult as non-cancerous conditions are common and cancer is quite rare. The use of tests forms a very important part in diagnosis, but this may also increase the time to cancer diagnosis. It is likely that what and when tests are done and how results are communicated can vary for different patients with the same cancer. These differences may represent missed diagnostic opportunities in some cases. In this project, I will explore how patients with kidney and bladder cancer are diagnosed. Bladder and kidney cancer will be studied together as patients usually present with blood in the urine or other urinary symptoms, and similar tests are done to look for both types of cancer. Despite the increasing trends and gender differences in how quickly these cancers are diagnosed, there is little information on how they are diagnosed. Therefore, studying this and whether there are delays in the use of tests is important to understand how we can improve early diagnosis of these cancers.