Cancer referrals and primary care

The Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme is a programme of work to improve survival for people with cancer in Scotland by diagnosing and treating the disease at an earlier stage.1 One of its ambitions is to increase public awareness of the national cancer screening programmes and also the early signs and symptoms of cancer to encourage them to seek help earlier. It also aims to improve informed decision-making around screening programme participation as well as primary care recognition and referral behaviour. Diagnostic capacity will be increased; however, since the launch of the DCE programme there has been a 6.5% increase