The content in this section was produced for health professionals. If you are a member of the public and would like to access information on the signs and symptoms of cancer, you can access more information here.
The Be Clear on Cancer (BCOC) programme was developed in response to the Department of Health's Improving Outcomes - A strategy for Cancer(PDF), to bring survival in England up to the average for Europe.
Public Health England led the programme in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and Cancer Research UK. The “Help Us Help You” campaign is now run nationally by NHS England to raise awareness of cancer signs and symptoms.
Between 2011 and 2018, BCOC campaigns promoted awareness and early diagnosis by:
raising public awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer
encouraging people to see their GP without delay
For most BCOC campaigns people from lower socio-economic groups who were over the age of 50 were the target audience, as research showed that these groups tended to delay seeing their GP (Macleod et al, 2009).
Each BCOC campaign was tested locally and then regionally, before national roll out if they proved to be effective. Further details of each BCOC campaign can be found below.
Public Health England, Department of Health and NHS England analysed several data sets to evaluate the BCOC campaigns. The following evaluation metrics were considered for each campaign if necessary or relevant.
Cancer and campaign awareness: are people seeing the campaign?
GP attendance: are more people going to their GP with the relevant symptoms?
Urgent referrals for suspected cancer: are more people being urgently referred
Conversion rates: how many of those referred turn out to have cancer?
Impact on investigations: is there an increase in time patients wait for tests?
Cancer incidence and staging: is there a shift towards earlier stage disease?
Promoting early diagnosis of breast, bowel and lung cancers. First report. 2010/11 local projects(PDF)
Public Health England were responsible for evaluation reports for all BCOC campaigns taking place after August 2013.
Be Clear on Cancer summary evaluation report 2014(PDF, 1.94 MB)
Be Clear on Cancer summary evaluation report 2013(PDF, 1.7 MB)
Be Clear on Cancer was a cancer awareness campaign led by Public Health England, working in partnership with the Department of Health and NHS England. This page contains links to documents that we hope you find useful. Please note however that the views or opinions expressed within those links are not necessarily those of Cancer Research UK.
