Cancer Loyalty Card Study

Approximately 7,400 new cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed each year in the United Kingdom (UK), and with over 4,000 women dying from the disease each year it is a particularly lethal form of cancer. The symptoms for ovarian cancer are not well known and vague, and most women are diagnosed at a late stage when the cancer has already spread around the abdominal cavity with poor prognosis. Novel methods are needed to improve earlier detection and thereby improve survival from this disease. The Cancer Loyalty Card Study (CLOCS) proposes to use loyalty card data from two participating high street retailers to investigate purchase behaviour as an opportunity for cancer symptom surveillance. The investigators aim to conduct a case-control study of ovarian cancer patients matched with women without ovarian cancer and to explore public preferences for how to communicate potential outcomes of the commercial and health data linkages back to individuals. Eligible participants will be women in the UK who own at least one loyalty card with the participating high street retailers. Of these women, those who have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer are eligible to participate in the study as cases, while women who have not been diagnosed with ovarian cancer are eligible to participate as controls. Upon choosing to participate, all participants will be asked to complete a short questionnaire about well-established ovarian cancer risk factors and common symptoms either in the clinic (cases) or online/from a packet in the mail(controls). This information will be used in risk assessment for ovarian cancer of participants, which will be used at the analysis stage.

Sex

Female

Minimum age

18 Years

Inclusion Criteria:

* Women, at least 18 years old, recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer (preferably recruited just after diagnosis and during treatment period,but are still eligible if diagnosed up to 2 years prior, at the latest) who hold at least one participating high street retailer loyalty card are eligible to join the CLOCS as cases.

Women, at least 18 years old, who have not been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and hold at least one participating high street retailer loyalty card are eligible to join the CLOCS as controls.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Women under the age of 18 years and, since this is a study about ovarian cancer,men will not be eligible to join this study. Women who do not own loyalty cards with the participating high street retailers are not eligible to join this study.

• BACKGROUNDFlanagan JM, Skrobanski H, Shi X, Hirst Y. Self-Care Behaviors of Ovarian Cancer Patients Before Their Diagnosis: Proof-of-Concept Study. JMIR Cancer. 2019 Jan 17;5(1):e10447. doi: 10.2196/10447. PMID 30664464
• RESULTBrewer HR, Chadeau-Hyam M, Johnson E, Sundar S, Flanagan J, Hirst Y. Cancer Loyalty Card Study (CLOCS): feasibility outcomes for an observational case-control study focusing on the patient interval in ovarian cancer. BMJ Open. 2023 Jun 14;13(6):e066022. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066022. PMID 37316316
• DERIVEDBrewer HR, Hirst Y, Chadeau-Hyam M, Johnson E, Sundar S, Flanagan JM. Association Between Purchase of Over-the-Counter Medications and Ovarian Cancer Diagnosis in the Cancer Loyalty Card Study (CLOCS): Observational Case-Control Study. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2023 Jan 26;9:e41762. doi: 10.2196/41762. PMID 36701184
• DERIVEDBrewer HR, Hirst Y, Sundar S, Chadeau-Hyam M, Flanagan JM. Cancer Loyalty Card Study (CLOCS): protocol for an observational case-control study focusing on the patient interval in ovarian cancer diagnosis. BMJ Open. 2020 Sep 8;10(9):e037459. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-037459. PMID 32900761