Alarm symptoms in primary care

doi:10.1136/bmj.39212.467037.BE

BMJ 2007;334:1013-1014 (19 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39212.467037.BE

Editorials

Alarm symptoms in primary care

These greatly increase the risk of cancer, but the diagnosisis still rare

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A new diagnosis of cancer is rare in primary care, and the roleof general practitioners (GPs) in diagnosing cancer can be challenging.In the United Kingdom, a GP with a list size of 1500 will onaverage see only 1.39 cases of lung cancer, 0.23 oesophagealcancers, 0.99 colorectal cancers, and 0.45 renal or bladdercancers each year.¹ We seek to diagnose the few patients withcancer out of the many who are concerned about it or who havenon-specific problems. In this week's BMJ, a cohort study byJones and colleagues assesses the association between alarmsymptoms and a subsequent diagnosis of cancer in just under800 325 patients in primary care.²

Diagnostic errors are one of the leading causes of medicolegalclaims against GPs,³ and they can damage the faith of our patients.However, we have a role as gatekeepers of health resources andmore recently . . . [Full text of this article]

Robin Fox, general practitioner, John Fletcher, general practitioner, clinical epidemiologist, BMJ

Health Centre, Bicester, Oxon OX26 6AT

Robin.Fox@gp-K84052.nhs.uk

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