Referring patients with unexplained swollen neck glands for specialist investigations could help to avoid some of the thousands of deaths each year from lymphoma, a type of cancer. New research led by the University of Exeter Medical School, published today in the British Journal of General Practice, has concluded that persistent enlarged lymph glands, found in the neck, should be referred for further investigation when detected in clinic.
Each year in the UK, more than 14,500 people in are diagnosed with a form of lymphoma, and nearly 5,000 die from the disease, with latest available figures from 1995 to 1999 showing that more than 6,320 deaths were avoidable in this period. The death rate is higher in the UK than the average across Europe.
To reverse this trend and improve prospects, earlier diagnosis is key. More than 40 per cent of patients visited their GP with symptoms three or more times before being referred for cancer investigations. Now, the University of Exeter Medical School has worked with colleagues in the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Bangor in two associated studies which were funded by NIHR.
