The Let’s Communicate Cancer programme aims to help community pharmacists respond to patients’ symptoms and refer to cancer specialists.

The programme, developed by the British Oncology Pharmacy Association (Bopa), features 4 modules which cover the following topics:

• early diagnosis and prevention
• what is cancer?
• treatment for cancer
• supporting your patients with cancer

There is also a resource bank within the programme and several quizzes to test learners’ knowledge.

The course is presented as e-learning in bite-sized pieces. Module 1 focuses on Early Diagnosis of cancer in the pharmacy. On completion, learners will be aware of:

1) How to recognise red flag cancer symptoms and provides an example of a real-life case study.

2) How lifestyle causes cancer.

3) How to encourage screening and

4) How to speak to your patients about cancer.

On completion of Module 2, learners would be able to provides an understanding on the science of cancer from basics through to advanced disease.

On completion of Module 3, learners would have reinforced knowledge on the variety of treatments for cancer with particular reference to drug treatments. On completion of Module 4, learners will be able to gives fingertip detail on how you can support your patients with cancer in the pharmacy, including a practical guide showing where to signpost your patients for further help. This module also has a section on pharmacy involvement in palliative care.

In addition, there are also examples of how to answer questions which may be asked. There is a section on providing palliative care.