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Screening Tests Concerns

Maconnal
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I'm 54 and diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer M1 Lungs. I'm concerned my GP didn't refer me to a cancer specialist or order colonoscopy/CT scan tests when I visited with specific concerns about bowel cancer (i.e. irregular bowel movements, darkened stool, unexplained persistent lower right back pain) a year before my caecal cancer diagnosis. What would prevent a GP from ordering such screening as soon as possible? How long does it take for a colon polyp to grow into a 5cm caecal carcenoma? How fast does bowel cancer spread to other organs after it penetrates the bowel wall?

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    Really sorry to hear of your position particularly when you had concerns a year earlier.

     

    This is the link you'll want it's the NICE guidelines on cancer referal specifically lower gastro

    If you had unexplained weight loss or bleeding they should have refered you

    They should have *considered* refering you if there was a change in bowel habit

    But hey you can read for yourself

    www.nice.org.uk/.../1-Recommendations-organised-by-site-of-cancer

    I'm not a lawyer but for negligence I'm guessing you would have had to have reported a weight loss or bleeding as it might be hard to show they didn't consider and decide against refering you

  • Offline in reply to GrahamM

    I had assumed that you were in the UK and treated under the National Health Service  which is why I shared the NICE link - I read now that you're retired USAF so this assumption may not be correct. Obviously other countries will have different treatment protocols so obviously take that on board if my assumption was incorrect.

  • Offline in reply to GrahamM

    Your assumption is correct, I live in the UK and have been treated under NHS. The NICE guidelines are a bit vague and outdated regarding age criteria. Not very helpful to or patients or GPs when patients like me have some but not all listed symptoms. Too much wiggle room for GPs to "wait and see" allowing the cancer to progress to incurable stage. Shame.

     

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