Thousands Of Lives Could Be Saved By Simple Test To Help Diagnose Bowel And Pancreatic Cancer

Main Category: Pancreatic Cancer
Also Included In: Colorectal Cancer;??IT / Internet / E-mail;??Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 26 Dec 2011 - 0:00 PST

email to a friend ? printer friendly ? opinions ? Based on using single 'red flag' symptoms such as rectal bleeding, doctors could miss 60 per cent of current bowel cancers.

For the research, published in the same edition of the BJGP, academics used anonymous data from the same 564 GP surgeries to develop and test the colorectal cancer algorithm by looking at a combination of risk factors, including age, family history of bower cancer, anaemia, symptoms including rectal bleeding, abdominal pain, appetite loss, weight loss, diarrhoea and changes in bowel habits. The researchers also took into account the different risks affecting men and women.

The study found that the algorithm was very successful in spotting which patients would be most likely to develop bowel cancer over the following two years - 70 per cent of all bowel cancer patients subsequently diagnosed were in the top 10 per cent of patients predicted to be most at risk, The two studies used the anonymous data of patients aged between 30 and 84 years old who were all free from diagnosis or symptoms of the two cancers over the previous 12 months. The GPs' practices were all contributing to the QResearch? database system - a not-for-profit partnership between The University of Nottingham and leading GP systems supplier EMIS.

The new algorithms for pancreatic and bowel cancer could be incorporated into existing GP computer systems to alert doctors to patients who are potentially most at risk of developing the diseases.

They could support the work of GPs in reducing diagnosis times in line with current Government policy and the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative (NAEDI) - a public/third sector partnership between the Department of Health, National Cancer Action Team and Cancer Research UK. Evidence suggests that simply raising awareness of symptoms and speeding up diagnosis could save 5,000 lives per year without any new advances in medicine.

The study has resulted in two simple web calculators - one for pancreatic cancer (1) and one for bowel cancer (2) - which are designed for doctors but a simpler version could also be made available on the internet to raise awareness among the general public and to prompt patients with risk factors or symptoms to seek advice from their doctor.

Similar QResearch? scores have already proven effective in previous research in identifying patients at most risk of developing lung cancer, gastro-oesophageal cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, fractures, kidney disease and serious blood clots.

Dr Clare Gerada, Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, which publishes the BJGP, said: "Early diagnosis, and access to appropriate diagnostic tests and tools, can make an enormous difference to the treatment and outcomes of patients with cancer and this new calculator, which is concerned with two of the most deadly forms of cancer, has the potential to save many lives.

"Professor Hippisley-Cox and her colleagues at The University of Nottingham are leading the way in devising simple but effective ways to help GPs speed up and improve their identification and diagnosis of cancer, and they should be rightly proud of this new research.

"The very foundation of the British Journal of General Practitioners is research such as this, which serves to improve the care GPs across the UK and further afield are able to provide to their patients."

Professor Hippisley-Cox added: "We are very grateful for the continuing support of the EMIS GP practices that contribute their high quality data to QResearch. Without them, our research would not be possible."

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our pancreatic cancer section for the latest news on this subject. (1) http://www.qcancer.org/pancreas/
(2) http://www.qcancer.org/colorectal
This research was undertaken using the QResearch? anonymised primary care database at University of Nottingham. Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

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University of Nottingham. "Thousands Of Lives Could Be Saved By Simple Test To Help Diagnose Bowel And Pancreatic Cancer." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 26 Dec. 2011. Web.
26 Dec. 2011. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239236.php>

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