Developing an equity-focused Target Product Profile for non-invasive biomarker tests tailored to support mobile testing outreach programmes to reduce cancer inequalities

Background Minority groups, whether it be because of their socio-economic, ethnic, religious, cultural, marginalised or rural backgrounds, face the greatest risk of poor cancer outcomes.

Even though early detection testing could mitigate this disadvantage, these populations are also less likely to seek testing or participate in screening programs.

The key barriers underpinning these behaviours include emotional distress, distrust of the healthcare system, and poor access to testing facilities.

To overcome these obstacles, innovative approaches are required, such as the use of novel non-invasive tests that can be administered through mobile testing clinics.

Non-invasive biomarker tests can identify cancer in breath, urine, blood, stool, or saliva specimens, making it quick, more acceptable and convenient to the patients. Mobile testing clinics greatly improve the reach, access, convenience, and overall experience of cancer testing. Combined, they offer a strong means to reduce inequalities for minority groups in early cancer detection.

However, profound gaps remain in the design and effective delivery of these testing programmes.

Aims To address this, we will develop an equity-focused Target Product Profile (TPP) for non-invasive biomarkers designed for use in mobile testing clinics.

The TPP will include a list of critical evidence requirements needed to develop non-invasive biomarker tests for use in mobile testing clinics to support early detection outreach programs among hard-to-reach-populations. Methods We will use a multiphase Participatory Design approach to develop a proof-of-concept TPP.

The first step involves interviewing patients, members of the public, clinicians, scientists, and population scientists to identify key characteristics of the biomarker test. This will be followed by a series of focus group workshops to iteratively develop the TPP.

Finally, an action plan will be developed to disseminate the study findings and TPP across the biomedical research community.

How the results of this research will be used This project will establish a highly productive long-term collaboration between early detection and biomarker experts from Imperial College London, the Institute for Cancer Research, and Queen Mary University of London. The results will immediately be shared across the team’s network to maximise the impact of the study.

The results from this research will also aid us in the gathering of supporting data for a CRUK Early Detection Project Award and/or Multidisciplinary Project award.

We will use this opportunity to create a broader research consortium of experts from other British universities and cancer specialities to develop a series of cancer specific TPPs using our unique approach.