Using Patient Navigation to Promote Bowel Screening in AAA Attendees. (TET BETA)

Testing the Efficacy, Feasibility, Acceptability and Cost-effectiveness of Patient Navigation to Promote Bowel Cancer Screening Participation Among Non-responders Attending Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) Screening: A Multi-centre Pilot Study.

The goal of this single-arm, multi-centre feasibility study is to assess the efficacy, feasibility and acceptability of implementing patient navigation across Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) screening services in England to increase uptake of bowel cancer screening. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Do service users complete a bowel cancer screening within three months of receiving patient navigation?
• Do service deliverers consider patient navigation as feasible to implement in practice?
• Do service users consider patient navigation acceptable to receive during their AAA appointment? Participants will be asked to discuss bowel screening with AAA practitioners (patient navigation). Follow-up surveys and interviews will be conducted with those that delivered the intervention and with those that received it.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Bowel Cancer Screening
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Patient Navigation conversation

Detailed Description

Bowel cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality in England. Biennial Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) screening can reduce bowel cancer-related deaths by detecting cases before symptoms develop. However, uptake remains suboptimal, particularly among men. Evidence from a single-centre study in Scotland suggests that a brief intervention, akin to patient navigation, delivered to men attending routine abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening appointments, can facilitate participation.

The overarching aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy, feasibility, acceptability and cost-effectiveness of implementing patient navigation intervention across AAA screening services in England.

This study will be a single-arm, multi-centre feasibility study that will be conducted across five AAA screening centres in England, i.e. Leicester, Birmingham and Black Country, London, West Yorkshire, and Somerset and North Devon. Over a three-month period (August-November 2026), AAA screening practitioners will deliver patient navigation to a sample of approximately 4190 men, aged 65+ years, who attend AAA screening and self-report as bowel screening non-responders.

The primary outcome of the study is completion of a FIT kit within three months of the AAA appointment. Secondary outcomes include the feasibility, acceptability and cost-effectiveness of the intervention.

The study comprises three Work Packages:

Work Package 1 will be the single-arm, multi-centre feasibility study. The outcome will be the completion of a bowel cancer screening kit, providing preliminary evidence of efficacy.

Work Package 2 will evaluate feasibility from the service provider perspective, using surveys (Workstream 2a) and interviews (Workstream 2b) with AAA service providers.

Work Package 3 will assess acceptability from the service user perspective, using surveys (Workstream 3a) and interviews (Workstream 3b) with those who received the intervention during the study period.

The findings will be used to inform an implementation toolkit as part of a national strategy to improve the uptake of bowel screening.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 4190
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Elizabeth Bailey; Phone Number: +441483 300800; Email: assurance@surrey.ac.uk

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • Leicester, United Kingdom
    • University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Men aged 65 years and above
• Attending an AAA screening appointment
• Have not completed their most recent bowel screening
• Agree to discuss bowel screening further

Exclusion Criteria:

• Men aged <65years
• Those who do not attend their AAA screening appointment
• Have completed their most recent bowel screening
• Do not agree to discuss bowel screening further
• Those who received a positive AAA result in their appointment.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Screening
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Other: Patient Navigation; Eligibility: Men who have a negative AAA result, indicate that they have not completed their most recent bowel screening and are happy to discuss this further. Intervention: A 2 minute Patient Navigation intervention (discussion regarding barriers to completing bowel cancer screening)	Other: Patient Navigation conversation; Brief 1.5-2 minute conversation to discuss barriers and solutions to why have not completed most recent bowel screening. Offer of third party request or information to contact screening service.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of FIT test completed	Completion of FIT test	Completion within 3 months of patient navigation intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Feasibility of delivering patient navigation (survey)	Survey with those who delivered patient navigation. Survey contains 7 items: 2 demographic questions, 2 items on a 3-point Likert scale (with option to provide further detail in open text), 2 open text responses, and one dichotomous item (Yes/No). The Likert scales are scored where 1 is low and 3 is high.	0-5 months post patient navigation delivery
Feasibility of delivering patient navigation (Interviews)	Semi-structured interviews with those who delivered patient navigation	0-5 months post patient navigation delivery
Acceptability of receiving patient navigation (Survey)	Survey with service users who received patient navigation. Survey contains 12 items: 4 demographic questions, 5 items on a 5-point Likert scale, and 3 open text responses. The Likert scales are scored where 1 is high and 5 is low.	0-5 months post patient navigation
Acceptability of receiving patient navigation (Interviews)	Semi-structured interviews with service users who received patient navigation	0-5 months post patient navigation

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Surrey
• Collaborators: Cancer Research UK; NHS England
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Robert Kerrison, PhD, University of Surrey

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): August 3, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): March 1, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): July 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 3, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 20, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): July 23, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 23, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 20, 2026
• Last Verified: June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: SPON 2026-06

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No