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MP Joe Powell C's the Signs in Kensington
C the Signs
Earlier this month, Joe Powell, Member of Parliament for Kensington and Bayswater, visited Golborne Medical Centre to see how local GPs are using C the Signs.
Hosted by Dr Meena Nathan and Dr Thushara Goonewardene, the visit brought together community clinicians, C the Signs Co-Founder Dr Miles Payling, and local leaders to explore how innovation, teamwork, and community engagement are transforming early diagnosis in one of London’s most diverse communities.
Transforming Early Diagnosis in Primary Care
Inside the busy surgery, clinicians demonstrated how C the Signs supports decision-making in real time - analysing patient records, symptoms, and risk factors to surface hidden indicators of cancer during routine appointments.
“We’re still early in the rollout, but already it’s helping us prioritise patients who might otherwise slip through the cracks,” one clinician shared.
C the Signs’ AI models - validated across more than 500,000 patient records - have achieved 99% sensitivity for cancer detection and 94% accuracy in predicting tumour origin. In real-world NHS evaluations, practices using C the Signs have seen a 50% reduction in emergency cancer diagnoses and a 20–50% improvement in time to diagnosis.
Discussions during the visit focused on addressing barriers such as low screening uptake and under-detection in harder-to-spot cancers like pancreatic and lung - areas where C the Signs’ AI-driven case finding is already being deployed across the NHS.
Community, Compassion and Continuity
Beyond technology, clinicians emphasised the human side of early diagnosis. One GP described how her team intervened when a patient’s surgery was nearly cancelled due to language barriers:
“She came in completely distraught. We stepped in, made the calls, got her rebooked. That kind of support takes time - but it changes everything.”
The Golborne team highlighted how community partnerships and culturally sensitive communication remain critical to ensuring that early diagnosis reaches every patient.
“It all starts with education,” said another clinician. “We saw what community groups achieved during the pandemic - those links still exist, but time is our biggest limitation.”
Facing the Pressures in Primary Care
The visit also revealed the realities of delivering proactive, preventative care in a high-demand urban setting. With limited space, the team frequently repurposes rooms - even corridors - to ensure every patient is seen. Expansion plans are already underway to increase clinical capacity next year. Despite these pressures, Golborne’s clinicians continue to innovate, integrating mental health support, opportunistic health checks, and early-diagnosis prompts into every consultation.
“Our patients work with us,” said a member of the Golborne team. “They know we’re doing our best - and they appreciate that.”
Partnership Beyond the Practice
Speaking after the visit, Joe Powell MP emphasised the importance of collaboration between community, technology, and health services:
“What’s happening here in Golborne - between GPs, community groups, and innovators like C the Signs - is exactly the kind of joined-up approach we need to deliver earlier diagnosis and better care.”
He also called for stronger links across the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and better alignment between voluntary and statutory services to tackle the wider determinants of health - from housing to mental wellbeing.
Dr Miles Payling, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at C the Signs, added:
“Early diagnosis begins in communities - in everyday conversations between GPs and patients, supported by technology that empowers those moments. Every 22 minutes, C the Signs helps detect another patient with cancer. What’s happening in Golborne shows how innovation can give patients back the one thing cancer takes away: time.”
Why It Matters
C the Signs was built by NHS doctors to work within existing systems and integrate seamlessly with primary-care workflows. Today, it is commissioned in over 1,500 GP practices, covering more than 10 million patient lives across the UK.
By enabling faster, more accurate triage and supporting clinicians at the point of care, the platform is redefining how cancer is detected - turning complex data into actionable insight and giving every patient a better chance of being seen in time.
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C the Signs launches womb cancer self-referral service
Somerset, UK - August 2024
C the Signs, in partnership with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, is proud to announce the launch of a pioneering new self-referral service designed to transform the early diagnosis of endometrial (womb) cancer.
Using artificial intelligence, women over 50 can now complete a quick, evidence-based assessment - and if there is any indication of cancer risk, they are triaged immediately and booked in for an ultrasound scan.
This UK-first pathway is accelerating earlier and faster detection in post-menopausal women - a group at higher risk of developing endometrial cancer.
Transforming Access to Early Diagnosis
Endometrial cancer is one of the most common cancers affecting women in the UK, with over 9,700 new cases diagnosed each year. When found early, five-year survival rates reach 90%. In the latest stages, that drops to just 15%.
The new AI-powered self-referral pathway allows women experiencing post-menopausal bleeding or other symptoms of womb cancer to refer themselves directly for testing - without needing to contact their GP first.
This streamlined approach ensures faster access to diagnostic services and helps women get the right care at the right time.
A Clinically-Led Approach to Earlier Detection
“People will be able to get a diagnosis much earlier than before,”
said David Milliken, Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust.
“We are seeing a year-on-year increase in referrals to our gynaecology cancer services, particularly for post-menopausal bleeding. By allowing patients to access our service directly via self-referral, we can avoid unnecessary delays and get them an appointment much more quickly.”
Dr Milliken added:
“This will also free up GP colleagues so they can see patients with other conditions. More than nine out of every ten women referred to our service will not have cancer. We hope this service will help to reassure the majority more quickly — and identify those who need treatment sooner.”
Empowering Women with Faster Access and Reassurance
Women’s health has long faced barriers to timely diagnosis and equitable care.
Helen Hyndman MBE, Ask Eve Nurse Service Co-ordinator at The Eve Appeal, praised the initiative:
“C the Signs’ self-referral service empowers patients by raising awareness of the symptoms of womb cancer and offering those experiencing post-menopausal bleeding a quicker appointment, closer to home. This will help provide reassurance and should increase the chances of womb cancer being diagnosed earlier, offering better outcomes.”
AI Innovation Driving a New Standard of Care
This initiative marks a significant step forward for women’s health - not just in reducing delays, but in empowering women with knowledge and faster access to life-saving diagnostics.
By simplifying the route to diagnosis, C the Signs and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust are setting a new national standard for how patients can access cancer diagnostic services across the NHS.
Dr Jude Gordon, Clinical Director at C the Signs, explained:
“At C the Signs, our mission is to break down barriers to earlier and faster cancer diagnosis. By enabling women to take control of their health and assess their symptoms, we’re ensuring faster access to specialist services and the right care at the right time - increasing the chances of surviving cancer.”
Scaling Early Detection Across the NHS
This pathway is the first of several AI-enabled self-referral services being launched across the NHS.
C the Signs will soon expand the model to include pathways for colorectal (bowel) and lung cancer, furthering its mission to make early detection a standard for all, not a privilege for some.
Together with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, C the Signs is advancing women’s health, improving equity of access, and giving more people the time and opportunity that early diagnosis provides.
Contact
To learn more about how C the Signs can accelerate cancer diagnosis in your region,
contact hello@cthesigns.com or visit cthesigns.com
C the Signs launches across 70 GP practices in Dorset ICS
In partnership with NHS England’s InHIP Programme, Dorset Integrated Care System Cancer Programme, NHS Dorset, and Health Innovation Wessex, the C the Signs Cancer Clinical Decision Support System has now been launched across all 70 GP practices in Dorset - marking a major step forward in the region’s efforts to detect cancer earlier and improve survival outcomes.
Transforming Cancer Diagnosis Across Dorset
Dorset’s population has one of the highest rates of cancer in the UK, with its older demographic particularly vulnerable to late diagnosis.
When cancer is found early, lives can be transformed - for example, over 90% of patients survive colorectal cancer for five years or more when diagnosed early, compared to less than 10% when detected late.
By supporting GPs to identify at-risk patients at the earliest possible stage, C the Signs is helping to ensure that every patient in Dorset has an equal chance of earlier detection and better outcomes.
Reducing Inequalities, Increasing Access
Working in alignment with NHS England’s Core20PLUS5 approach to tackling healthcare inequalities, this partnership focuses on raising awareness, increasing community engagement, and ensuring equitable access to cancer diagnostics - particularly in areas of high deprivation.
The rollout is part of the InHIP (Innovation for Healthcare Inequalities Programme), designed to reduce variation in access to care and improve outcomes across the country.
“One of our key priorities is to add healthy life years to people living in Dorset, and early detection of cancer symptoms is key to achieving this.
When caught early, survival rates are greatly improved - and we are confident C the Signs will help us realise that ambition.”
- David Freeman, Chief Commissioning Officer and Deputy Chief Executive, NHS Dorset
Empowering Clinicians, Enabling Earlier Diagnosis
The C the Signs platform integrates directly with GP systems, including EMIS and SystmOne, analysing patient symptoms, risk factors, and medical history to help GPs identify potential cancer risk in under 30 seconds.
By supporting decision-making at the point of care, the platform is helping to reduce missed diagnoses, speed up referrals, and ensure patients access the right tests and pathways sooner.
This initiative is another step towards making early diagnosis the standard - not the exception - across the NHS.
A Shared Mission
“We’re proud to partner with NHS Dorset, Health Innovation Wessex, and NHS England’s InHIP programme to bring our platform to every GP practice in the region.
Together, we’re working to ensure every patient - regardless of where they live - has the best possible chance of surviving cancer.”
— Dr Bea Bakshi, Co-Founder and CEO, C the Signs
Driving Impact Across the NHS
C the Signs is now used by over 10,000 healthcare professionals across 1,500 GP practices, helping detect a patient with cancer every 22 minutes and supporting early detection across more than 100 cancer types.
By combining AI, clinical evidence, and national cancer pathways, C the Signs continues to redefine what’s possible in cancer detection - giving patients back time, choice, and hope.
📖 Read the full article on HSJ: www.hsj.co.uk
📩 Contact us at hello@cthesigns.com to learn how C the Signs can accelerate early cancer diagnosis in your region.
Image Credit: iStock
Featured
Why every moment matters: A message from Dr Miles Payling
Dr. Miles Payling
At the inaugural C the Signs Conference, Dr Miles Payling - Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer - delivered a message that captured the heart of a movement reshaping how the world detects cancer.
He spoke about science, yes. But more importantly, he spoke about people. About time. About the moments we can give back when cancer is found sooner.
“We can’t afford to wait for symptoms to become obvious. Every moment matters - because every moment lost is a choice, a treatment, a life that could have been saved.”
The question that changed everything
Miles shared the story that shaped the mission behind C the Signs.
As an NHS doctor, he met a patient named Joe - active, fit, and 60 years old. After several GP (primary care) visits with vague symptoms, Joe arrived at hospital jaundiced and unwell. Scans confirmed metastatic pancreatic cancer.
Three weeks later, Joe died.
“Joe never asked, why do I have cancer? What he asked was, why was my cancer picked up so late?”
That question became the foundation of C the Signs - a platform built to help clinicians detect cancer early enough to change the outcome.
Today, that vision makes a measurable difference: a patient with cancer detected every 22 minutes.
Each one represents a life identified sooner - and a future that’s less defined by fear.
Why early detection still falls short
Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Survival still depends heavily on the stage at diagnosis.
- Breast cancer five-year survival falls from 97.9% at stage 1 to 26.2% at stage 4.
- Bowel cancer falls from 91.7% to 10.3%.
- Yet only around 58% of patients are diagnosed at an early stage.
In primary care - where most people first seek help - clinicians face enormous pressures:
brief consultations, complex presentations, thousands of patients, and on average only a handful of cancer diagnoses each year. As Miles said in his conference speech:
“The problem isn’t people. It’s knowledge. We need to give every GP the power of precision - instantly.”
Early detection doesn’t fail because clinicians aren’t trying.It fails because cancer is complex, symptoms are subtle, and the time to make sense of them is short. Our platform exists to bridge that gap - offering clinicians timely clarity when decisions need to be made.
Innovation and redefining what’s possible
C the Signs brings together trusted medical evidence, real-time data and AI-powered insight to support clinicians in moments where clarity matters most.
Within seconds, our platform can highlight when a patient may be at risk and guide their doctor toward the right diagnostic pathway - across more than 100 cancer types. But the impact isn’t defined by speed, it’s defined by the lives reached sooner.
Real-world evaluations across the NHS have shown that clinicians using C the Signs are able to:
- identify patients whose symptoms signal concern - even when the signs are hard to spot
- offer reassurance by safely ruling out risk when symptoms are more likely to be benign
- give clinicians clearer insight into where a tumour may have started
- help reduce emergency cancer presentations by half
- shorten the time it takes for patients to reach a diagnosis
Each of these outcomes represents something deeply human: a patient receiving answers earlier,
a family spared uncertainty, a healthcare system given space to care, not catch up.
This is what innovation should do - not stand in the place of clinical judgement, but enhance it. It should deepen insight and make the subtle more visible, so clinicians can act early with the confidence their patients deserve.
The movement, and honouring Jess’s Rule
Miles closed by sharing the story of Jessica Brady - a 27-year-old whose symptoms were subtle, persistent and easy to misinterpret. Despite several visits to her doctor, her cancer was found too late. Her loss is felt deeply, not only by those who loved her, but by clinicians across the country who want every patient to be seen in time.
To honour her legacy, our team is introducing Jess’s Rule - a safeguard within the platform that gently alerts clinicians when a patient returns multiple times with unresolved symptoms, prompting a thoughtful, timely cancer risk assessment.
It’s a small change with a profound purpose: to make sure no patient is ever unintentionally overlooked, and no pattern is missed simply because symptoms are subtle.
As Miles said:
“We can turn tragedy into transformation - by ensuring that no patient is ever overlooked again.”
Jess’s story is a reminder of why this movement matters. Together, we can help make early cancer detection a standard for everyone - not a privilege for a few - and give each person the time, choice and hope they deserve.
Partnerships
Elevating the role of nurses in early cancer detection
On 9 September 2025, C the Signs and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) co-hosted a pivotal webinar titled “The role of primary care nurses in early cancer diagnosis.” The Royal College of Nursing in bringing together nursing professionals, primary care leaders, and clinical innovators, the event made clear that earlier detection of cancer is not just about tools - it’s about people, processes, and partnership.
Why this webinar mattered
- A vital gap to fill. Almost half of cancers in the UK are still diagnosed at a late stage, when treatment is less effective. The Royal College of Nursing In primary care, symptoms are frequently vague or non-specific - meaning the margin for error is narrow, and the cost of delay is high.
- Nurses are central. Whether as practice nurses, advanced nurse practitioners, healthcare assistants, or part of the wider team, nursing staff are often the first to see patients, triage symptoms, and coordinate care escalation. This webinar affirmed their critical role in recognising risk, escalating appropriately, and helping patients navigate diagnostics.
- Digital support can change outcomes. The session introduced how clinical decision support systems - like C the Signs - can augment clinical vigilance, helping teams to assess cancer risk faster, more consistently, and more equitably.
What the webinar covered
The agenda was structured to bridge theory and practice. Key themes included:
- Challenges of early diagnosis in primary care - recognising “red flags” and patterns when symptoms are ambiguous.
- NICE cancer guidelines in real life - translating guidance into day-to-day decisions.
- Case studies - including FIT (faecal immunochemical test), PSA, cervical screening, post-menopausal bleeding, and more.
- Team roles & escalation - how every member of the practice team contributes to spotting and acting on cancer risk.
- Clinical decision support in action - how platforms like C the Signs streamline assessment, flag risk, and suggest appropriate referral pathways.
- Interactive Q&A - giving attendees a chance to probe, challenge, and learn.
What this means in practice
The webinar reaffirmed a powerful shift: early cancer detection will increasingly be achieved not by siloed brilliance, but by connected teams working with intelligent augmentation.
- Nurses become more empowered to act on subtle cues, supported by systems that help flag risk early.
- Diagnostic pathways get activated sooner, shortening the time between suspicion and investigation.
- Inequalities may shrink: consistent decision support helps reduce variation in care across regions and teams.
This aligns with the real-world impact C the Signs is already showing. In GP practices using the platform, cancer detection rates have improved (for example, a jump from 58.7 % to 66.0 % in a study of 35 practices) - doing so without burden to the clinicians.
Voices from the session
One comment from the live discussion echoed what many already believe:
“Even when symptoms don’t look classic, having a prompt or nudge helps us check further rather than wait.”
That underscores exactly why combining human expertise with AI is transformative - we don’t replace intuition or experience, we sharpen and scale them.
Looking ahead: how to make this real
To turn the insights from the webinar into frontline change, we need action:
- Embed tools in everyday workflows. Decision support systems must feel seamless - integrated into existing electronic record systems, not a bolt-on.
- Invest in training & trust. Clinicians need confidence in AI, through education, demonstration, and peer support.
- Track outcomes & learning. Monitor how decision tools affect referral patterns, stage at diagnosis, and equity across populations.
- Champion policy & resource alignment. Systemic support - from commissioners, health systems, and regulators - is essential to scale early detection equitably.
Rewriting what’s possible
The RCN – C the Signs Webinar wasn’t just another educational event - it was a statement of purpose. It reaffirmed that nurses are pivotal to rewriting cancer’s timeline. It showed us that technology, when built with care and aligned to workflow, can restore precious time to patients. And it made clear that early detection is not a dream - it’s an imperative we can deliver together.
At C the Signs, our mission is to give people back time, choice, and life through earlier, safer, more equitable diagnosis. That mission comes alive when we partner with frontline clinicians - and this webinar is just one step in the journey. The transformation is underway, and we’re leading it together.