1704011832
PrintShare
Doctors have a lot of responsibility, but sometimes they overlook cancers. Researchers have revealed which factors play a crucial role.
Medical professionals bear an enormous burden. Their judgments can mean the difference between life and death. This process begins with the initial dialogue with the patient and ends with the selection of the appropriate treatment option. When it comes to cancer, early detection is crucial. Because in the initial phases, malignant tumors can often be successfully removed. However, if the disease is advanced, the risk of metastasis formation increases. This causes the cancer cells to spread throughout the body, which complicates treatment.
The family doctor is usually the first point of contact for health problems. However, cancer symptoms are often non-specific and can also indicate other illnesses. It can therefore happen that family doctors do not recognize cancer.
A thorough conversation between doctor and patient is essential to enable the correct diagnosis. © Joseffson/Imago
Cancer not detected: Family doctors give six reasons
As part of a study, scientists examined this topic in detail. They surveyed almost 160 doctors from more than 20 European countries who had not recognized cancer in their patients. The doctors reported anonymously about the reasons.
The study revealed six overarching themes that need to be addressed. This is expected to reduce morbidity and mortality in the small proportion of patients in whom cancer diagnosis is significantly and avoidably delayed.
Don’t miss out: You can find everything about health in the newsletter of our partner 24vita.de.
The scientists have summarized the six main reasons as follows, like the specialist portal Springer Medicine reported:
- Patients expressed symptoms that did not indicate cancer but another disease.
- There were circumstances that distracted from the suspicion of cancer, e.g. B. normal laboratory results, an improvement in symptoms, or another illness whose symptoms dominated.
- Some patients did not accept the medical offers and advice, for example hesitating when it was recommended to undergo an MRI scan.
- The healthcare system itself: Doctors made misdiagnoses due to stress, overwork and/or lack of time, or it was unclear who was responsible for the next steps in treatment.
- In some cases, doctors have failed: They have not sufficiently checked abnormal test results or have not examined their patients comprehensively enough.
- Communication between doctor and patient as well as between different medical disciplines was often confusing or unclear. In some situations, a lack of language skills resulted in delayed diagnoses.
Further details about the study “Investigating why European GPs sometimes do not think about or respond to a possible cancer diagnosis.” A qualitative study”
Release date: September 19, 2023
Published on the specialist portal British Journal of General Practice
Scope: 158 general practitioners took part in the survey
Study authors: International research team led by Senada Hajdarevic from the Department of Nursing at Umeå University in Sweden
Slowing down inflammation in the body: Ten foods that help
View photo series
This article only contains general information on the respective health topic and is therefore not intended for self-diagnosis, treatment or medication. It in no way replaces a visit to the doctor. Unfortunately, our editorial team cannot answer individual questions about medical conditions.
The editor wrote this article and then used an AI language model for optimization at her own discretion. All information has been carefully checked. Find out more about our AI principles here.
#Doctors #Cancer #Study #Identifies #Main