ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2004
Referral of suspected colorectal cancer: have guidelines made a difference?
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A systematic review of postcoital bleeding and risk of cervical cancer.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2006Pooled it
- The effects of the Two-Week Rule on NHS colorectal cancer diagnostic services: a systematic literature review.BMC health services research · 2006Pooled it
- Primary care practitioners' priorities for improving the timeliness of cancer diagnosis in primary care: a European cluster-based analysis.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- International variation in adherence to referral guidelines for suspected cancer: a secondary analysis of survey data.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2016Article
- The risk of colorectal cancer with symptoms at different ages and between the sexes: a case-control study.BMC medicine · 2009Article
- Stage, survival and delays in lung, colorectal, prostate and ovarian cancer: comparison between diagnostic routes.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2007Article
- Predicting colorectal cancer risk in patients with rectal bleeding.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2006Article
- Urgent GP referrals for suspected lung, colorectal, prostate and ovarian cancer.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2006Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In the United Kingdom, patients with colorectal symptoms referred on the fast-track pathway into secondary care are offered investigation of their symptoms within 2 weeks. Audits demonstrate that a minority of patients with colorectal cancer are referred under this arrangement. We assessed referral letters to hospitals in one district in the period before and after the introduction of the 2-week wait initiative. The guidelines appear to have made little difference to the proportion of cases selected for referral on the urgent pathway. However, cancers in the earliest stages present with fewer clinical features than advanced disease and a combination of signs and symptoms are more likely to arouse suspicion in the referring agent.
Indexed as
Identifiers
15296561PMC1324842What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.