Access to treatment-guiding biomarkers in the UK: surveys of cancer patients and healthcare professionals

To understand current barriers to treatment-guiding biomarker testing in cancer patients in the UK.
A literature search, interviews with healthcare professionals, and a focus group of cancer patients were used to identify current challenges and barriers to treatment guiding biomarker testing. These were followed by online surveys of healthcare professionals and patients designed to further explore and quantify challenges to biomarker testing within the UK.
Challenges were identified across the entire biomarker testing pathway, the most common being insufficient workforce, long turnaround times, and lack of specific training. These challenges had a negative impact on patient access to targeted cancer therapies.
Challenges to accessing treatment-guiding biomarker testing of cancer patients within the UK are impacting clinical decision-making. There is a requirement to improve awareness and training of healthcare professionals, particularly nurses and advanced clinical practitioners, with opportunities to improve outdated and fragmented ordering and reporting processes. Steps should also be taken to improve the availability of plain-language information materials for patients, to promote understanding and self-advocacy.
Why did we perform this research?
To identify the best treatment options for cancer patients, it is important to test the patient’s tumor for the presence of specific genetic variants or proteins (also known as biomarkers). Previous publications have suggested that many UK patients do not receive such tests, even when NHS guidelines state they should. This research aimed to understand what proportion of patients are not getting tested, and why biomarker testing is not occurring in all patients.
What did we do?
Patients and healthcare professionals, including oncologists, nurses, and lab scientists, were interviewed and/or surveyed to identify any barriers in the NHS to treatment-guiding biomarker testing.
What were the results?
In total, 47.5% of the cancer patients stated they had not received treatment guiding-biomarker tests or were unsure if they had received such tests. NHS professionals told us that there were many challenges to implementing biomarker testing, the most common being insufficient staffing levels and lack of tailored training about genetic and biomarker testing, particularly among nurses. Also, test results took too long, with more than half of patients waiting longer than the recommended 2 weeks for a test result.
What are the implications?
Our findings indicate that broad reforms and additional resources are needed within the NHS to ensure cancer patients have access to the right treatments.