Dr Sarah Bailey
Associate Professor of Primary Care Diagnostics
s.e.r.bailey@exeter.ac.uk
6445
+44 (0) 1392 726445
College House
College House, University of Exeter, St Luke's Campus, Heavitree Road, Exeter, EX1 2LU, UK
Overview
Sarah is an NIHR Advanced Fellow and deputy lead of the Discovery (DISCO) Group at the University of Exeter Medical School. Sarah's programme of research is focussed around the integration of genomics into primary care cancer assessment, the use of routine blood tests to identify patients at risk of cancer in primary care, the impact of multimorbidity on cancer diagnosis, and the evaluation of new cancer detection strategies in primary care, including the faecal immunochemical test (FIT). Her work is supported by grants totalling over £6,000,000 from sources including the NIHR, Cancer Research UK, and the Department of Health's Policy Research Unit.
Upon joining the Discovery Group led by Prof. Willie Hamilton in 2014, Sarah began her PhD on the association between thrombocytosis (raised platelet count) and cancer diagnosis. Her PhD found that thrombocytosis is an important risk marker of undiagnosed cancer in primary care, particularly in men aged over 40 years. This work has had a significant impact on clinical practice since its publication in 2017, and was the top-rated paper of the British Journal of General Practice in that year.
Research Income
Identifying novel biomarkers for enhanced prediction and early detection of cancer. Co-applicant. Cancer Research UK Early Detection and Diagnosis Primer award. £71,000. 2023 - 2024
Supporting clinical decision making in patients with symptoms of cancer and pre-existing health conditions. Principal investigator. NIHR Advanced Fellowship. £758,158. 2022 - 2026
COLOFIT - Optimal use of Faecal Immunochemical Testing for patients with symptoms of possible colorectal cancer. Co-applicant and work package lead. NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme. £755,864.02. 2021 - 2023
Saving Lives: Improving the Early Diagnosis of Cancer using Platelet Count. Principal investigator. Philanthropic donation. £400,000. 2022 - 2025
Expediting cancer diagnosis in primary care: the Higgins programme. Principal investigator. Philanthropic donation. £243,750. 2021 - 2024
The SPOtting Cancer among Comorbidities (SPOC) study. Supporting clinical decision making in patients with symptoms of cancer. Co-applicant and Work Package lead. NIHR Programme Grant. £1,498,126. 2021 - 2026
Investigating ethnic differences in blood test results for suspected cancer in primary care. Co-principal Investigator. Cancer Research UK Early Detection and Diagnosis Project Grant. £136,365. 2021 - 2024
Covid-19: impact on recorded cancer incidence in England. Co-applicant. CanTest Internal Project award. £15,000. 2022
Improving cancer risk strati cation using population based patient characteristics and cancer genotype. Co-applicant. GW4 BioMed MRC Doctoral Training Partnership. £75,000. 2022 - 2025
Evaluating ethnic differences in blood markers of cancer in primary care. Co-Principal Investigator. Cancer Research UK £136,365. 2021 - 2023
An investigation of the prevalence of mental health problems in parent carers in England and pathways to support and treatment. Co-applicant. NIHR Three Schools Mental Health Research Project Award. £283,486.
Determining the biological mechanisms driving racial disparity in prostate cancer using an interdisciplinary approach. Co-applicant. Wellcome Trust Seed Corn Funding. £25,594.84.
Evaluating ethnic differences in Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) for detecting prostate cancer in primary care. Co-Principal Investigator. NIHR School for Primary Care Research Project Award. £30,506.
Exploring the molecular mechanisms underlying pre-diagnostic thrombocytosis in lung cancer patients and evaluating its diagnostic value. Co-applicant. GW4 BioMed MRC Doctoral Training Partnership. £75,000. 2019 - 2022
The risk of cancer with high normal platelet counts (NORMA). Co-applicant. Department of Health, Policy Research Unit (PRU) in Cancer Awareness, Screening and Early Diagnosis. £131,699. 2018
A feasibility study of virtual reality as a therapeutic intervention in children with ambulatory cerebral palsy. Co-applicant. NIHR Research for Patient Benefit programme. £227,431. 2014 - 2016
Involving families in developing ideas for research, designing collaborative studies, seeking research grants and producing outputs directly useful to families. Co-applicant. Cerebra. £796,303. 2014 - 2019
Awards
- Royal College of General Practitioners Outstanding Early Career Researcher Award 2023 (winner)
- CanTest International School 2021: Most Helpful for Patients and Public (winner)
- Health Services Journal Value Awards 2020: Cancer Care Initiative of the Year (finalist)
- CanTest Travelling Fellowship (April 2019)
- Cancer Research UK Early Diagnosis Conference bursary (February 2019)
- Lead author of top rated paper in the British Journal of General Practice (2018)
- Lead author of Royal College of General Practitioner's Research Paper of the Year (Cancer) 2018
- The Cancer and Primary Care Research International Network conference poster prize (2017)
- South West Society for Academic Primary Care best junior abstract award (2016)
- University of Exeter EU Facilitation Fund (2016)
- Runner up patient poster prize, National Early Diagnosis Initiative conference, London (2015)
Prospective Students
I welcome enquiries from prospective students with interests in primary care research and cancer diagnosis. If you have a proposal that aligns with my research interests, please get in touch.
Qualifications
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
PhD in Medical Science - University of Exeter
Masters of Public Health - Cardiff University
BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science (Physiology) - Cardiff University
Links
Research group links
Research
Research interests
- Developing risk assessment models for cancer detection in primary care
- Integrating genomics into primary care cancer assessment
- Evaluating and modelling the impact of new cancer detection strategies
- Faecal immunochemical test (FIT) for colorectal cancer
- Using routine blood tests available in primary care to diagnose cancer
Observational data experience
- The Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) and linked datasets
- National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS) data
- Purpose-built datasets for evaluation and research within the NHS
- Caerphilly Prospective Study
Publications
Journal articles
Conferences
Reports
External Engagement and Impact
Invited lectures & workshops
- Integrating a genetic risk score for prostate cancer into UK suspected cancer pathways. PRACTICAL consortium annual meeting, London (2022)
- Using genetic risk scores to improve cancer detection in primary care. University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter (2022)
- Integrating a genetic risk score for prostate cancer into UK suspected cancer pathways: a UK Biobank study. CanTest International School, Oxford (2022)
- Cancer detection in primary care: emerging evidence. Guy's and St Thomas' Vocational Training Scheme online event (2021)
- The faecal immunochemical test (FIT) in primary care: past, present, and future. The Cancer Research UK Early Diagnosis virtual conference (2021)
- Diagnosing cancer with routine healthcare data. The Bazalgette Series: the role for data across the South West, Exeter (2018)
- Introducing the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) in the South West of England. Cancer Research UK Cascade Event, Exeter (2018)
- Cancer Research at the University of Exeter. Fundraising dinner for the University of Exeter, London (2018)
- Thrombocytosis in primary care. University of Malmo, Sweden (2017)
- How routinely collected data helps cancer diagnosis. The Hunts Community Cancer Network cancer survivor's conference, Huntingdon (2017)
Media Coverage
- The Daily Express. 'Simple test can detect early signs of bowel cancer'. 19th January 2021
- The I. 'Easy new test for colorectal cancer could save lives'. 19th January 2021
- The Daily Telegraph. '£4 bowel cancer test should be used more widely to save lives, researchers say'. 19th January 2021
- The Daily Mail. '£4 bowel cancer breakthrough'. 19th January 2021
- NIHR Alert. 'Results from a routine blood test could help in early detection of cancer'. 14th October 2020
- BBC Radio 4 Inside Health (radio interview), 4th July 2017
- The Guardian Weekly (print) ’Blood test for cancer’, 2nd June 2017
- ITV West Country (television interview), 23rd May 2017
- BBC Radio Devon (radio interview), 23rd May 2017
- The Times (print) ‘Blood test could save thousands from cancer’ [front page], 23rd May 2017
- The Guardian (print) ‘Common blood test points way to early cancer diagnosis’, 23rd May 2017
Teaching
Fellow of the Higher Education AcademyTutor on Making Sense of Evidence module for BMBS, including delivering workshops on diagnostics
Professional Training Year provider for BSc Medical Sciences
Student supervision
- Becky Ward, University of Exeter (2022 - 2026) Improving cancer risk stratification using population-based patient characteristics and cancer genotype (PhD supervisor)
- David Shotter, University of Exeter (2022 - 2028) Clinical features of cancers in patients with selected comorbidities, and an investigation into the statistical robustness of the methods for identifying them (lead supervisor)
- Melissa Barlow, University of Exeter (2019 - 2022) Which of the histological subtypes of lung cancer are associated with pre/peri-diagnostic raised platelet levels? (PhD supervisor)
- Jan Clark, University of Exeter (2018) Investigating outcomes for patients with thrombocytosis (Masters dissertation supervisor)
- Emily Ankus, University of South Florida (2017) Determining 3% risk for underlying malignancy in patients with a high normal platelet count (summer placement)
- Punit Sevak, University of Exeter (2017) The association between red cell distribution width (RDW) and undiagnosed cancer in primary care: an observational cohort study (summer placement)
- Katie Ho, University of Exeter (2017) The association between idiopathic thrombosis, thrombocytosis, and cancer diagnosis in primary care: an observational cohort study using electronic medical records (summer placement)