Using instinct against cancer

[caption id="attachment_34188" align="alignright" width="405"] FAMILY FRIEND: Your GP should go with his or her gut instinct more often, says a new study[/caption]

FAMILY doctors should be able to refer patients for cancer tests based on their gut instinct because that is just as accurate in identifying the disease as waiting for well-known symptoms to appear, a Danish study has found.

At present, GPs are not allowed to refer patients for urgent tests based simply on their suspicions, but researchers said that this rule could be causing unnecessary delays to diagnoses.

The research found that where a GP was suspicious that a patient had a serious disease, that person had a one in 10 chance of being diagnosed with one within two months. The likelihood was even greater for diagnoses in six months.

The study's authors said this meant GPs' gut feelings were as accurate in diagnosis or even more so than well-known cancer "alarm" or "red flag symptoms" such as blood in urine, difficulty swallowing or rectal bleeding. Only 50% of patients who have cancer first visited their GP with alarm symptoms, the researchers said.

The study involved 400 GPs who saw 16000 patients in Denmark. The GPs were asked at the end of each consultation if they had the slightest suspicion of cancer or another serious disease.

Dr Peter Hjertholm, of the Research Unit for General Practice at Aarhus University and the study's lead author, said: "Some so-called alarm symptoms of cancer only have a positive predictive value of five per cent. It is something to take seriously when GPs become suspicious of serious disease. It is very critical that GPs are able to refer for further diagnostic work-up quickly." – The Daily Telegraph