Non-specific symptoms-based pathways for diagnosing less common cancers in primary care: a service evaluation.
Br J Gen Pract
; 71(712): e846-e853, 2021 11.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34097639
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Although less common cancers account for almost half of all cancer diagnoses in England, their relative scarcity and complex presentation, often with non-specific symptoms, means that patients often experience multiple primary care consultations, long times to diagnosis, and poor clinical outcomes. An urgent referral pathway for non-specific symptoms, the Multidisciplinary Diagnostic Centre (MDC), may address this problem.AIM:
To examine the less common cancers identified during the MDC pilots and consider whether such an approach improves the diagnosis of these cancers. DESIGN ANDSETTING:
A service evaluation of five MDC pilot projects in England from December 2016 to March 2019.METHOD:
Data items were collected by pilot sites in near-real time, based mainly on the English cancer outcomes and services dataset, with additional project-specific items. Simple descriptive and comparative statistics were used, including χ2 tests for proportions and t-tests for means where appropriate.RESULTS:
From 5134 referrals, 378 cancers were diagnosed, of which 218 (58%) were less common. More than 30 different less common tumour types were diagnosed in this cohort. Of the MDC patients with less common cancers, 23% (n = 50) had ≥3 GP consultations before referral and, at programme level, a median time of 57 days was recorded from GP urgent referral to treatment for these tumour types.CONCLUSION:
A non-specific symptomatic referral route diagnoses a broad range of less common cancers, and can support primary care case management for patients with symptoms of possible cancer that do not qualify for a site-specific urgent referral.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Neoplasias
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Etiology_studies
/
Evaluation_studies
/
Incidence_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Br J Gen Pract
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article