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Pharmacies in the East Midlands and London are trialling a test that could help prevent oesophageal cancer, local integrated care boards have announced.
Across both regions, 12 pharmacies are offering the EndoSign capsule sponge test, which was developed by Cyted, to people with persistent heartburn.
As part of the service, patients swallow a small capsule attached to a thread, inside of which is a sponge that dissolves and collects a sample of cells from the oesophagus lining as the thread is pulled out by a pharmacist.
The cells are then sent for testing to look for cellular changes that could require further investigation with an endoscopy. The test checks for Barrett’s oesophagus, which is a change in the cells lining the oesophagus, and can be accompanied by symptoms of indigestion and heartburn.
Barrett’s oesophagus can sometimes lead to oesophageal cancer.
In a statement published on 5 August 2026, NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire said that 79 patients had already been tested across the East Midlands, with 25 referred for further investigation via an endoscopy.
The East Midlands pilot, which will run until March 2027, is available in five pharmacies to people aged 45 years and older, who are experiencing persistent heartburn or acid reflux and are local to Nottingham, Derby, Kirkby-In-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, or Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, the statement added.
This pilot follows the launch of the same pilot in north-central London in June 2026, across seven pharmacies.
Conor Corbett, community and primary care pharmacy co-chair for the British Oncology Pharmacy Association, told The Pharmaceutical Journal on 13 August 2026: “This is a very important addition to the community pharmacy service offer. With community pharmacies often the most accessible part of the NHS, it brings earlier cancer detection into the heart of local communities.
“For conditions, such as Barrett’s oesophagus, where symptoms may be dismissed as simple indigestion or reflux for many years, increasing opportunities for case-finding and earlier investigation could have a significant impact on outcomes.
“We know that oesophageal cancer is often diagnosed late, and survival rates remain poor compared with many other cancers. The capsule sponge test has the potential to identify patients at risk of oesophageal cancer before cancer develops, or at a much earlier stage when treatment is more likely to be successful. From a prevention perspective, that is where the greatest value lies.”
Marc Donovan, director of healthcare development at Boots, which is participating in the pilot, commented: “Our partnership with Cyted is an important milestone in developing our future healthcare journey.
“Clinical research plays a vital role in the development of new treatments and therapies, and we are proud to support increased participation to achieve earlier detection of cancer and drive better health outcomes for all.”
Nick Hunter, chief officer of Community Pharmacy Nottinghamshire, said the pilot was a “very exciting opportunity” but noted that it is a piece of research and is still small in scale.
“The early data shows that around one-third of the 79 people tested across the five sites were referred on for further investigation. Remember, this is completely opportunistic — these are people who didn’t access health advice for this anywhere else, so it’s great,” he added.
“The independent pharmacies involved use, as one of the criteria, people pushing for OTC [over-the-counter] medicine for heartburn. This acts as a hook to have a conversation with the patient.”
“[A future model] might need to look at how we capture and engage with people at non-pharmacy locations,” Hunter added, noting that this could be “tricky” where there is no healthcare professional on site.
The plans were originally announced by NHS England in July 2025, who at the time said the tests would be offered to people who regularly buy OTC heartburn medications but have not yet seen a GP.
The aim of the service was to offer the tests to around 1,500 people in London and the East Midlands from early 2026, with the pilot evaluated to see if a wider rollout would be valuable, NHS England said at the time.
