Advocating for patients through laboratory tests: what do GPs’ use of blood tests for suspected cancer tell us?

In this issue of the BJGP, Ben Cranfield and colleagues describe the frequency with which common blood tests were ordered by GPs prior to their patients receiving a diagnosis of cancer.1 Data from the National Cancer Diagnosis Audit (NCDA) provided a nationally representative selection of patients in England diagnosed with cancer in 2018, and included detailed data collected from GP records. The NCDA provided information not only on the types of blood tests, but also patients’ symptoms and the time course to obtain a diagnosis.

Of the 39 752 patients included in the audit, less than half (41%) had blood tests done prior to diagnosis. Use of blood tests varied greatly depending on type of cancer. For example, patients with leukaemia (84%), myeloma (76%), or pancreatic cancers (71%) were far more likely to have blood tests than those with vulval cancer (8%), breast cancer (4%), or melanoma (2%). This provides strong evidence that GPs were judiciously considering the most appropriate diagnostic test for their patient with suspected (but at this point still undiagnosed) cancer. A greater proportion of patients …

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