Prioritising research for cancers of the oesophagus and stomach
Christopher M. Jones; University of Cambridge
What do you think researchers should focus on to improve the care provided to patients with cancers of the oesophagus (gullet) or stomach?
There is no doubt that more research is needed and that there are many questions about these cancers that need answering. These relate to all parts of a patient’s journey. This includes questions relating to how to prevent oesophageal and stomach cancers, how to diagnose and treat them more effectively, and how to support people after they have received treatment.
There are unfortunately not enough resources to focus on each of these questions at once. This means we must decide which areas are the most important to focus on first.
Deciding which topics to focus on is difficult. Patients often have different views on what is important to the people looking after them in the healthcare team. This means it is important that we choose areas to research based on what patients and their wider family members think as well as what each member of the healthcare team considers important.
The UK & Ireland Oesophagogastric Group (UKIOG) recognised this and a wider need to find research priorities. To address this, we set up a project to work with patients, people with lived experience of these cancers and healthcare professionals to together agree on which research questions are most important. We also worked closely with charities such as the OPA Cancer Charity (previously known as the Oesophageal Patients Association) to achieve this. With their help, we designed and sent out a survey that asked patients to tell us areas that they thought needed more research.
A total of 455 people took part in this survey and between them suggested over 4000 areas of research. We looked at these areas and grouped them into 92 similar questions. We then asked patients and healthcare professionals to rank which questions mattered most to them. Patients’ views were given strong importance. As a result of this survey, 22-46% of research priorities from healthcare professionals changed.
At the end of this process, we created a list of the top 20 research priorities for oesophageal and gastric cancer. We also created separate lists for research on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of these cancers, as well as for palliative care or improving long-term side effects.
This work has taken many years but was published in 2025. We hope that the results will help ensure that researchers and funding organisations focus on research that will make the most difference to patients.
The top 20 priorities are as follows:
- Which combinations of treatments work best for people with oesophageal or stomach cancer?
- Which people with oesophageal or stomach cancer should be offered immunotherapy?
- Who should have extra treatment after surgery or radiotherapy?
- What is the best way to help people maintain good nutrition during treatment for oesophageal or stomach cancer?
- Who should be checked (screened) for oesophageal or stomach cancer?
- What is the best way to treat oesophageal or stomach cancer when it is found early?
- What is the best way to treat Barrett oesophagus (a condition that sometimes leads to oesophageal cancer) when there is a high risk it could turn into cancer?
- How can treatment be better tailored to each person with oesophageal or stomach cancer?
- Are there some people with oesophageal or stomach cancer who could safely avoid surgery, and how can this be done?
- Why are more younger people being diagnosed with oesophageal or stomach cancer?
- How can we best support nutrition in people with oesophageal or stomach cancer that cannot be cured?
- What is the best way to prepare people for oesophageal or stomach cancer treatment before it starts?
- What helps most to improve quality of life and control symptoms for people with oesophageal or stomach cancer that cannot be cured?
- What is the best way to check and monitor people with Barrett oesophagus?
- Does preparing people before treatment improve their long-term health after oesophageal or stomach cancer treatment?
- What prevents oesophageal and stomach cancers from being found earlier?
- How can we best support long-term nutrition in people after treatment for oesophageal or stomach cancer?
- How can we reduce long-term side effects after surgery for oesophageal or stomach cancer?
- What is the best way to monitor people after oesophageal or stomach cancer treatment to spot cancer coming back early?
- How can new surgical treatments reach people with oesophageal or stomach cancer more quickly and safely?
If you would like to learn more about the UK & Ireland Oesophagogastric Group, please visit https://ukiog.co.uk/. This project was led by Dr Christopher Jones (Clinical Lecturer, University of Cambridge) and Mr Christopher Peters (Clinical Associate Professor, Imperial College London), along with a large group of healthcare professionals, scientists and patients. We are very grateful for their time and for every patient and healthcare professional who responded to our surveys to help make this project a success.
The results for this survey can be found below.
