Patient acceptability of FIT stool test and analysing a colorectal cancer risk tool

Background and study aims
Previous studies have investigated if the faecal immunochemical test (FIT), a non-invasive test which measures blood in stools, could be used to investigate patients with colorectal cancer symptoms. Addressing patient barriers to using FIT is important in maximising uptake if FIT is recommended as a colorectal cancer rule-out test. Previous studies have allowed over 1000 patients to feedback on their experience of using FIT, however, researchers would like to have feedback from patients who decided not to use FIT or respond to the questionnaire.
As well as using faecal haemoglobin alone as a triage tool to help rule out colorectal cancer in patients, the researchers would also like to investigate to determine if a colorectal cancer risk tool using more patient parameters would allow better individualised risk categorisation of patients. The proposed study would use a risk tool for colorectal cancer, developed using previous study data, and use this developed tool to look at colorectal cancer outcomes compared to calculated cancer risk in patients.
Who can participate?
Study 1: Patients aged 18 to 110 years who have been offered but have not used FIT as part of their referral from primary to secondary care
Study 2: Patients who have been referred to Croydon University Hospital under the FIT Implementation pathway
What does the study involve?
Study 1: Patients have a recorded telephone discussion about their experiences of being offered the FIT kit.
Study 2: Patients who have used a stool test called FIT (faecal immunochemical test) in 2019 or 2020 will be identified. This is usually offered to patients when they are referred from their GP to Croydon Hospital because of bowel symptoms. To determine if FIT could be improved for patients in the future, by combining the test result with further information to create a risk score for bowel (lower gut) pathology, the research team will record patients' FIT test results and blood test results at the time FIT was used, along with age and gender and outcome of the referral to Hospital, and then anonymise this information (remove all personal details from it) so that a FIT risk score can be calculated. The anonymised information will not be associated with patient medical records, no changes will be made to patient medical records and this will not affect any clinical care patients receive at Croydon University Hospital.