More than three quarters (77%) of cancer patients who first present to their family doctors (GPs) with suspicious symptoms are referred to hospital after only one or two consultations, a new study has found.
However, the new research also shows a wide variation in the number of times a cancer patient sees their general practitioner before they are referred to a specialist, with the most pre-referral consultations occurring when the cancer was one of the less common types, or when the patient was either female, young, or an older person from an ethnic minority. The research was published last week (24 February), in the journal The Lancet Oncology.
The study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, found that patients with breast, melanoma, testicular and endometrial cancers are more likely to be referred to a specialist after just one or two consultations. However, patients with some less common cancers such as multiple myeloma, pancreatic, stomach and ovarian cancer, as well as patients with lung and colon cancers and lymphomas are more likely to require three or more visits to their family doctor before they are referred to a hospital specialist. Patients with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that is notoriously difficult to diagnose since it mimics many other conditions, are 18 times more likely to require three or more pre-referral consultations compared with patients with breast cancer.
Image: doctor pad Kokopinto from Flickr
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge