Home » Publications » Barriers to taking part in Cancer Screening in Luton
In 2018 Luton CCG ran a campaign to raise awareness and encourage more people to attend the free screening that the NHS offers in order to detect cancer as early as possible. Free screening is offered for breast, bowel and cervical cancers, because it offers early detection and saves lives.
A third of local residents were unaware of NHS cancer screening.
Breast Cancer Screening - 49%said fear of being diagnosed positive stopped them from participating in breast screening. 35% said that they didn’t know how the test would be done.
Cervical Screening - 49% said embarrassment of doing the test was the most common reason for not having cervical screening. 42% said that fear of a positive diagnosis prevented them from have cervical screening.
Bowel Cancer Screening - 62% said ‘not understanding how to do the test’ was the reason for not participating in screening. 47% were too embarrassed and 47% were frightened of a positive diagnosis.
Almost half of male participants were unaware of bowel cancer screening.
Participants from black or minority ethnic groups reported much lower awareness of cancer screening than those of a white ethnicity.
Research was commissioned by Luton's Cancer Action Group and carried out by Luton Clinical Commissioning Group in partnership with Cancer Research UK’s Health Facilitator team, who work with GP practices and other health professionals across the East of England to improve the early diagnosis of cancer.
Cancer treatment is more likely to be successful if cancer is diagnosed at an early stage. In response to the findings in the report LCCG