Prevention, Awareness and Screening
Evidence shows that around 40% of cancers could be prevented. Preventable cancers are due to known risk factors – smoking, being overweight, and obesity are the biggest. (Cancer Research UK, 2015 figures).
For people who do have cancer, early diagnosis – where the cancer is found at stage 1 or 2 – is vital. Early diagnosis is linked to more successful treatment and improved survival rates.
North Central London Cancer Alliance supports wider prevention efforts led by our public health colleagues and leads projects to support early diagnosis. We raise awareness of cancer symptoms, getting behind national and regional campaigns, and organising our own local campaigns. We also use community engagement, advertising and social media to encourage the public to contact their GP sooner and to participate in cancer screening programmes.
Our strategy
Our Cancer Prevention, Awareness and Screening Strategy provides a framework for working towards national ambitions. It is aligned to the Local Population Health and Integrated Care Strategy, as well as CORE20PLUS5, an NHS approach to reducing healthcare inequalities, in which cancer is a priority area.
Prevention
We are supporting the work of our public health colleagues to tackle smoking, alcohol consumption and excess weight.
We also collaborate in Making Every Contact Count initiatives, particularly where they present opportunities to inform people of the benefits of cancer screening. Through the HPV vaccination project, we are working with local partners to encourage take up of the HPV vaccination among school-aged students and adults up to the age of 25.
We also embed prevention efforts in some of our wider programmes, such as signposting participants of the Lung Cancer Screening Programme to stop smoking services.
Awareness
We are raising awareness of cancer symptoms and increasing screening uptake amongst the general public. Awareness is gradually increasing in our communities, so people are more likely to confidently contact their GP as quickly as possible if something does not seem right in their own body.
We work with local organisations to spread key messages in important places, online and in real life, to reach a range of communities, especially vulnerable groups. The results of the Cancer Awareness Measure survey carried out across North Central London is helping us shape the activities we deliver with our partners.
Screening
Access to cancer services and screening varies widely in North Central London.
It is our priority to work with partners on projects to improve participation in the four national screening programmes – lung (which we manage in North Central London), breast, bowel, and cervical.
We also have various initiatives to boost screening participation for vulnerable people.
