International Keynote

Prof. Patrick Redmond

Patrick Redmond is a GP and Associate Professor in General Practice at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dublin, where he leads PRiCAN (Primary Care Research into Cancer). His research focuses on earlier cancer detection, screening and diagnostic pathways in primary care, using pragmatic trials, routinely collected health data, health economics and patient-preference methods. He coordinates TRACES, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Staff Exchanges programme examining pre-diagnostic cancer signals across health systems, and leads or co-leads national and European studies in lung, colorectal and pancreatic cancer. He has held clinical academic roles in Ireland, Australia and the UK, including at the University of Cambridge, King’s College London and the University of Western Australia. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of BJGP Open.

Earlier cancer detection in general practice: tests, trade-offs and the whole pathway

Earlier cancer detection is not a single test but a chain of decisions: who is considered at risk, when investigation begins, which test is used, how uncertain findings are managed, and whether patients can complete the pathway. Using three clinical scenarios, this keynote will examine how primary care responds to a changing symptom trajectory, how a health system should offer and deliver proven lung cancer screening, and what should happen when a new risk signal - from a risk score, biomarker or multi-cancer blood test - enters care. It will ask what evidence is needed before a new test or pathway should change practice, and how patient preferences, multimorbidity, workload and inequalities alter the balance of benefit and harm. Examples from PRiCAN and European collaborations will lead to a practical research agenda for comparing diagnostic pathways across health systems.