Skip to main content

Meet The Team

Led by Professor Philip Quirke at the University of Leeds alongside patient representative Kate Bartholomew , the Yorkshire Cancer Research Bowel Cancer Improvement Programme has several work streams:

  • Establish Speciality Groups to steer improvements and arrangement and participation in educational initiatives.  Speciality Groups have been established for;
    • Surgery - led by Professor Paul Finan
    • Oncology - led by Consultant Medical Oncologist Dr Daniel Swinson, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
    • Radiology  - led by Consultant Radiologist, Dr Damian Tolan, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust,
    • Pathology  - led by Dr Nick West and Professor Phil Quirke
    • Anaesthetics - led by Dr Simon Howell
    • Gastroenterology - led by Consultant Gastroenterologist, Dr James Turvill, York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
    • Clinical Nurse Specialists - led by Donna Kellett, Clinical Nurse Specialist at Bradford Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Julie Hemingway, Clinical Nurse Specialist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
  • Data - this workstream is led by Professor Eva Morris and supported by  Associate Professor of Cancer Epidemiology Amy Downing, Research Statistician, John Taylor and Research Fellow Dr Rebecca Birch.  This workstream uses routine data collected by the NHS during the diagnosis and management of patients with bowel cancer.  This data is analysed and interpreted by the research team to develop an integrated dataset for the Programme.  The data is shared with the speciality groups to identify variation and develop educational initiatives to improve outcomes.  The Programme will be enhancing these data further through linkage to new existing datasets and from data we collect. This will generate high quality intelligence about the management of patients with bowel cancer across Yorkshire and Humber.
  • Patient Reported Outcomes Measures (PROMS) -  led by Dr Kate Absolom, this aspect of the Programme focuses on understanding the outcomes for patients diagnosed with bowel cancer by the establishment of paper and electronic collection of PROMS (questionnaires at diagnosis and 12 months), collection and analysis of data per Multi-Disciplinary Teams. Penny has led a working group consisting of patients, surgeons, clinical nurse specialists and academic staff to develop the patient surveys that will be used in the Programme.  This workstream is also supported by regular meetings of the Bowel Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialists from across Yorkshire and the Humber.
  • Implement new pathology data -  this workstream includes the collection of photographs of quality of rectal, low rectal and colonic cancer surgery. Local and central grading of surgery and feed back to teams. Collection of the extended pathology dataset, block of tumour and normal for phenotypic and molecular data and individuals with high genetic risk identified through universal difficient mismatch repair (dMMR) testing on consenting patients. Please direct any queries regarding the pathology data to Rebecca Miller.
  • Implement new radiology data - this work stream is focused on improving imaging techniques for diagnosing bowel cancer and for improving the information included in radiology reports.  This includes the establishment of radiology proforma reporting and capture of minimum datasets and return to the centre.

If you have any queries about YCR BCIP please contact our Programme Manager, Hannah Rossington ,  or our Deputy Project Manager, Emily Connearn