TY - JOUR T1 - Accelerate, Coordinate, Evaluate Programme: a new approach to cancer diagnosis JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 176 LP - 177 DO - 10.3399/bjgp16X684457 VL - 66 IS - 645 AU - Edmund Fuller AU - Karen Fitzgerald AU - Sara Hiom Y1 - 2016/04/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/66/645/176.abstract N2 - Cancer survival in England falls short of the best in the world. It is estimated that if the NHS is successful in implementing the initiatives and ambitions outlined in the 2015 cancer strategy, up to 30 000 more patients per year will survive cancer for 10 years or more by 2020. Of these, almost 11 000 will be through earlier diagnosis.1 To achieve the system-wide changes needed to support earlier and faster diagnosis for patients, evidence will be critical.A key objective of the ACE (Accelerate, Coordinate, Evaluate) Programme (www.cruk.org/ace) is to provide evidence to support development of new diagnostic pathways. ACE was initiated in June 2014 as a 3-year NHS England initiative, supported by Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support, with a team made up of staff from the three organisations. The programme aims to address the NHS outcome of ‘preventing people from dying prematurely’, as well as improving overall patient experience along the diagnostic pathway.Through funding from ACE, as well as from local NHS organisations, a number of projects are running across England trialling new approaches and pathways to diagnosis. Of these, ACE supports many projects looking at the important role GPs and other primary care health professionals have in recognising symptoms of cancer and referring patients who need further investigation. By evaluating these local approaches, ACE will present a national body of evidence to inform cancer commissioning.The first wave of the programme, launched in 2015, is made up of around 60 projects across England, split into eight thematic ‘clusters’ to help facilitate peer learning and evidence gathering. Each cluster contains a number of projects, each exploring a different concept … ER -