Ground-breaking cancer campaign for north east London featured in leading medical journal

The ‘You Need to Know’ womb cancer awareness campaign, which is helping to save lives in north east London, has been recognised in The Lancet, a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind.

The campaign reaches out to women from Black African, Black Caribbean and South Asian communities in north east London where the impact of womb cancer from a late-stage diagnosis is greater.

It features local volunteers from these communities and is being run by the North East London Cancer Alliance, in partnership with the Eve Appeal, a leading UK charity raising awareness of, and funding research for, gynaecological cancers.

The Lancet edition from June 2023 references ‘You Need To Know’ in a thought-provoking spotlight piece called ‘Uterine cancer mortality and Black women: time to act’ which is the work of Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, Leicester Cancer Research Centre and University of Leicester.

Their research shows that outcomes from womb cancer are better amongst white women than black women. It is the first time that this data around outcomes for womb cancer by ethnicity has been captured and used in this way.

The article is designed to be provocative and stimulate decisions and action among key opinion leaders in medicine to help shape future activities.  In north east London, we are already ahead of the game.

Alex Lawrence, Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist, Barts Health NHS Trust, explains; ‘This campaign is the first of its kind nationally and we hope this could lead the way for future work across the country. We are reaching out directly to the communities that research shows are most likely to be impacted by womb cancer. Key to this is raising awareness of the main symptom of womb cancer, which is bleeding after the menopause.

“If you do have bleeding after the menopause then see your doctor straight away. It’s unlikely to be anything serious. If we do find cancer, then the earlier it’s treated, the more successful treatment is.”

Athena Lamnisos, CEO, The Eve Appeal, says: “Womb cancer presents with some very literal ‘red-flag symptoms’, yet many aren’t aware that abnormal bleeding can be a sign of cancer. This campaign is brilliant at speaking from local people to local people to spread the word - get bleeding checked! Unfortunately in the UK, Black women are more likely to develop womb cancer, and Black and Asian women are more likely to get diagnosed at a later stage and therefore have worse outcomes. So we’re spreading the message to try and change this, because You Need To Know.”