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BEHANDLING-God og treffsikker diagnostikk, behandling og rehabilitering

Early diagnosis of abdominal cancer in general practice - a cohort study

Awarded: NOK 5.1 mill.

-During the data collection phase, the project leader and the research assistant presented the project on the radio and on the University of Tromsø's information pages. The project leader has talked about the project during a course in Cancer Diagnostics for general practitioners in Oslo 2013, and during a Health Department hearing in 2011, leading up to the current Fast track packages for early diagnosis of cancer. Progression and temporary data from the project have been presented at several Medical congresses, i.e. Cleveland (US) 2012, Cambridge (UK) 2013, Winnipeg (Canada) 2014, Aarhus 2015, Gothenburg 2015, Boston (US) 2016.

Cancer is a leading cause of death. General practitioners (GPs) must confront the professional challenge that among many patients with possible cancer symptoms, only a handful actually has cancer. Early diagnosis is generally considered decisive for a goo d prognosis. The relationship between abdominal symptoms and cancer needs to be clarified and will be studied in the present cohort study. Our research takes place in general practice surgeries and is based on real patients, with six months prospective re cording of new cases of cancer and data related to these patients. Our research will try to benefit from collaboration in the CA-PRI network (The Cancer and Primary Care Research International Network) (http://www.ca-pri.com/ ), that aims to promote int ernational research collaboration about cancer in primary care. Objective We want to investigate the importance and impact of symptoms, findings, supplementary investigation and the GP's degree of suspicion of cancer when abdominal symptoms are presente d in primary care. Previous studies on early diagnosis of cancer have shown some symptoms to be valid but unspecific in relation to different forms of cancer. Through better empirical clinical-epidemiological data we hope to suggest improved diagnostic st rategies for the GP towards the recognition of different forms of abdominal cancer like colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, bladder cancer and others. Power calculations suggest sufficient power to obtain relevant data. Method and material We want to do a cohort study including approximately 110-120 000 consecutively consulting patients in general practice. Through international collaboration around 600 GPs will be recruited to register all patients consulting during ten workdays within a period of one month. All forms and guidelines will be printed in Norway and distributed from The University of Tromsø to the international collaborators. Data will be treated electronically with manual surveillance in Troms

Funding scheme:

BEHANDLING-God og treffsikker diagnostikk, behandling og rehabilitering