A £2.99 million NIHR Global Health Research Award has been made to fund the AWACAN-ED (Advancing Early Diagnosis of Cancer in Southern Africa) programme.
Funding will run until September 2025, for research being conducted in Zimbabwe and South Africa by a partnership of the Wolfson Institute of Population Health with the Universities of Cape Town and Zimbabwe, and Kings College London. In Southern Africa, people with symptoms of cervical, breast, and colorectal cancers are diagnosed when they self-present, usually at an advanced stage and with associated poor outcomes. AWACAN-ED aims to shift this paradigm to earlier stage at diagnosis, through research assessing the time intervals from symptom awareness to referral and diagnosis, and the factors influencing these intervals. Researchers will develop and evaluate symptom assessment e-Tools for primary care providers and the public, to promote more timely presentation and referral. Co-PI, WIPH Director Fiona Walter said: This vital funding will allow us to continue to answer important questions about how to encourage appropriate help-seeking among people in these settings with possible cancer symptoms and how to deliver high-quality, accessible and equitable cancer referral and diagnosis services in community healthcare and primary care facilities.