Personalised letters to improve screening uptake

Patients who received a letter addressed to them from their GP are more likely to go for bowel cancer screening than those who received the standard automated letter, research by University College London (UCL) has found. Researchers said making small changes to the letter template would have a one-off set-up cost of £78,000 but could save lives. Overall, personalised letters could lead to an extra 165 people at high or medium risk of colorectal cancer undergoing screening each year, with 61 more cancer cases detected.