A lay perspective of the CRUK Early Detection Conference at Edinburgh

Another highly educational conference, although the sessions on biology and pathology were a little above my pay grade and there will be no mention here of DNA fragmentomics and nanosensors.

Thanks to Fiona for inviting us, and Corey for arranging. At the start of the conference, Catherine Elliott (CRUK), who welcomed us to the 11^th Early Detection Conference, did mention in passing that the role of the patient rep was “particularly important” in continued research. It was very nice of her to say so, and it was good to see other PPI in the audience.

There were so many takeaway points. Here are a few:

• The Lung Cancer talk from Sam Janes (UCL) and further work into successful lung screening
• Naturally the patient focussed debate was of great interest with colleague, Dave Kelsall, speaking
• An excellent explanation (for me) into Sensitivity and Specificity
• The inability of MCEDs into detecting certain cancers and those at an early Stage
• The need for further testing of MCED to assess mortality rates
• The use of AI in screening
• Environmental exposure from geospatial hazards – air pollution, processed food, water contaminants, pesticides, chemicals, PFAS. How many are there ?
• But nothing yet on the effects of stress ?
• The cost of detection and how the UK only uses the most economical programmes, with other countries spending significantly more funds on screening esp the USA and we wonder why UK detection rates lag other developed countries ?
• A catch up on Best 4 and the use of the Endoscope in oesophageal cancer detection
• Whether mass detection might overwhelm the NHS as it stands
• And finally, a particularly fascinating talk by Prof Ros Eeles on Targeted Prostate Screening, which I will be using in other QM research

Of special note were the talks on Galleri and MCED and the debates on AI delivered imaging and that some screening programmes can do more harm than good.

I noted, there were 234 posters. I don’t want to pick out one over any other, but there were some good ones coming from our group. Although, there was one pitch, from one PhD student, which if she doesn’t succeed in cancer research certainly has a future in cinema film marketing.

It was great meeting up with the rest of the team, seeing them F2F rather than in TEAMs boxes, special thanks to Oleg for nurturing a couple of lost souls, and an enjoyable time was had at the conference dinner where again we were able to meet up with other PPI and researchers.

I can’t wait for the next CRUK early diagnosis conference.

Thanks once again for the invite.

By David Holden – CanDetect PPI representative