Many cases of bowel cancer that present as an emergency could have been identified earlier, researchers warn today.
About a fifth of these patients had at least one ‘red flag’ symptom in advance, say Dr Cristina Renzi of University College London, UK, and colleagues.
Their study, published in the British Journal of Cancer today (28 September) used figures from the National Cancer Registry and GP data on 1,606 patients at over 200 GP practices.
This showed that 17.5% of colon cancer patients and 23% of rectal cancer patients that were diagnosed as an emergency had at least one ‘red flag’ symptom in the year before their diagnosis.
In addition, most of these individuals visited their GP during the year before their diagnosis, with these visits increasing significantly in the months and days leading up to their diagnosis.
This finding “could represent opportunities to diagnose the cancer earlier,” says Dr Renzi. “It’s important to find ways to ensure these patients can be diagnosed at an early stage. And this study highlights the need to support GPs and give them the tools to diagnose and refer patients promptly when they feel it’s necessary.”
Dr Julie Sharp of Cancer Research UK added: “This research shows the difficulties in diagnosing patients who are not showing typical symptoms of bowel cancer. In some cases, where people have been diagnosed after an emergency presentation, there may have been opportunities for people to be diagnosed earlier, and it’s important to try to find better ways of picking up these patients and getting them referred appropriately.
“So research like this, to understand more about people’s symptom histories, is crucial to find better ways to diagnose the disease at an early stage when treatment is more likely to be successful.”
* A second study in the same journal links poor awareness of cancer symptoms to poor survival rates.
Researchers linked survey evidence of awareness across the UK with survival rates. The highest levels of awareness were found in areas such as Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, according to the researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Renzi, C. et al. Do colorectal cancer patients diagnosed as an emergency differ from non-emergency patients in their consultation patterns and symptoms? A longitudinal data-linkage study in England. British Journal of Cancer 28 September 2016
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