Primary Care Cancer Research

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What is primary care cancer research?

Primary care plays a vital role across the cancer continuum, from prevention and screening through to survivorship and end-of-life care.

Regular contact with patients in the community, continuity of care between patients and clinicians, the capacity to innovate swiftly and at scale, and a full understanding of a patient’s medical and family history are unique characteristics of primary care that can be leveraged to improve cancer care and outcomes for patients.

Primary care is at the forefront of healthcare innovations that will impact on cancer care, including the application of AI in health and the integration of genomics into medicine.

Cancer in primary care

In the UK, over 70% of cancer diagnoses begin with a patient contacting their primary care provider. While many are referred through urgent suspected cancer pathways, others are identified through routine checks or emergency presentations.

A crucial challenge for primary care clinicians is clinically assessing, and risk stratifying, patients presenting to primary care and deciding which patients needs urgent further investigation and which patients can be managed safely in primary care.

At present, GPs and primary care clinicians have very few tests and tools available to them for early cancer detection owing to a scarcity of primary care research in this field.

Manchester Primary Care Cancer Research Team (MPaCT)

Based within the Division of Population Health, Health Services Research & Primary Care at The University of Manchester, MPaCT is a multidisciplinary group of academic GPs, epidemiologists, and behavioural scientists.

Our core research areas include:

Developing and evaluating new diagnostic tests
Improving cancer screening and early detection
Understanding and tackling inequalities in cancer care

We collaborate with global leaders through the Manchester Cancer Research Centre, the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre, and the Cancer Research UK International Alliance for Cancer Early Detection (ACED).

Modernising Prostate Cancer Detection – The GP-TEST-PRO study

Primary care is the route to diagnosis for 80% of men with prostate cancer, yet standard PSA tests struggle to identify aggressive tumors and ignore key risk factors like Black ethnicity or family history.

To address this, the GP-TEST-PRO study is evaluating more accurate, non-invasive diagnostic strategies. By offering men aged 50–79 (and higher-risk men from age 45) advanced testing – including bpMRI and polygenic risk scores – the study aims to detect clinically significant prostate cancers early and reduce diagnostic inequality.

Understanding the drivers of inequality in early cancer diagnosis

Diagnosing cancer early significantly improves survival, yet ethnic minorities, deprived communities, and rural populations often face systemic delays in getting a diagnosis. Funded by the Cancer Research UK International Alliance for Cancer Early Detection (ACED), this project investigates the drivers behind these geographical and demographic inequalities.

The research combines healthcare dataset analysis with patient interviews and clinician decision-making experiments. By uncovering the specific barriers to accessing care, the team aims to inform targeted interventions that ensure early cancer detection is equitable for everyone.

Find out more about this study

Key questions for future research

Looking ahead, our researchers are committed to tackling some of the biggest challenges in primary care cancer research, including:

How can we optimise PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) thresholds for urgent referrals?
What are the primary drivers of inequalities in early cancer detection and diagnosis in the UK?
Can the HELP Flag (High or Elevated Levels of Platelets) pathway effectively expedite cancer diagnoses?