PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Biran, Adam
AU  - Dobson, Christina
AU  - Rees, Colin J
AU  - Hamilton, Willie
AU  - Humes, David
AU  - Neilson, Laura Jane
AU  - Turvill, James
AU  - von Wagner, Christian
AU  - Whelpton, John
AU  - Sharp, Linda
TI  - Patient experiences and expectations of faecal immunochemical testing for investigation of colorectal cancer symptoms: a cross-sectional qualitative interview study with patients and practitioners in the UK
AID  - 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-093215
DP  - 2025 May 01
TA  - BMJ Open
PG  - e093215
VI  - 15
IP  - 5
4099  - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/15/5/e093215.short
4100  - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/15/5/e093215.full
SO  - BMJ Open2025 May 01; 15
AB  - Objectives Faecal immunochemical testing (FIT) is now commonplace in the UK to prioritise symptomatic patients for urgent gastrointestinal investigation. The test requires a stool sample to be collected at home by the patient and returned for analysis. In this qualitative study, we sought to understand the feasibility and acceptability of FIT-based triage for patients.Design A cross-sectional, qualitative, experiential interview study.Setting Recruitment was through three participating UK NHS sites (Yorkshire, Midlands, North-East). Health professionals were also identified through membership of the BSG/ACPGBI Symptomatic FIT Guideline Development Group and snowball sampling.Participants We interviewed 21 patients who had completed FIT and been referred for colonoscopy and 30 primary and secondary care health professionals involved in symptomatic FIT delivery.Results Completion of FIT was unproblematic from the perspective of patients who returned the test. However, health professionals expressed concern over non-return. Among patients, understanding of the purpose of FIT and the meaning of results varied. Health professionals acknowledged that ensuring patient understanding of these can be challenging. Patients believed colonoscopy was less likely to miss cancer than FIT. Patients with a family or personal history of cancer were particularly anxious and wanted the reassurance of colonoscopy, even with a negative FIT result.Conclusions We found no major barriers to the use of FIT in prioritising symptomatic patients for urgent investigation. Improving communication might increase compliance and, possibly, acceptability of non-referral for colonoscopy in the case of a negative test result.Data are available upon reasonable request. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request as a pseudonymised dataset.