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GPs' cancer diagnosis

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User
Posted 23 Jun 2015 at 15:01

Gps' cancer diagnosis delays cost 10,000 lives every year.  This is not just for PCa of course but we do know from some of our members that some GPs are very tardy in sending patients for scans or instigating PSA tests.  Slow progressing of patients in some hospitals and many hospitals not having the best treatment available, though not covered in this article, must also shorten lives. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3135370/GPs-cancer-diagnosis-delays-cost-10-000-lives-year-Watchdog-forced-issue-step-step-guide-spotting-disease-patients-slip-net.html

Barry
User
Posted 23 Jun 2015 at 18:21

Our daughter in law was 28 when the GP sent her for testing for breast cancer but he refused to mark it as urgent because of her age. Diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer and lost a breast

Our daughter was 38 and treated for many years for IBS by our GP before she finally went private. Aggressive colo-rectal cancer and a colostomy. It was assumed she was too young for bowel cancer, an old persons disease.

Our grandson was 13 and treated for many months with many different antibiotics (which in themselves made him feel ill as he had so many of them) for recurrent throat infection, again our daughter had to take him private because he was getting weaker and weaker. By this time he had a lump in his neck but according to the doctor it was caused by the infection. Aggressive, inoperable naso pharyngeal carcinoma. GP assumed that at his age it had to be his tonsils.

We don't have much confidence in GPs in this family

Edited by member 23 Jun 2015 at 18:23  | Reason: Not specified

We can't control the winds - but we can adjust our sails
User
Posted 02 Oct 2016 at 14:41

Johsan,

I wish your post actually surprised me but it doesn't.  My whole journey so far has been a catalogue of late testing - ignored results and NHS mix ups.  None of us have confidence either.  Nothing short of a miracle would now restore my confidence in the NHS.  That is just what happened to me if i include what has happened to my partner and the rest of the family in the last few years from Doctors treating a symptom that wasn't the main problem and ignoring the main disease until it may be too late - thankfully it wasn't but it could have been.  Ah just makes me want to scream!

User
Posted 07 Oct 2016 at 20:20

That is very annoying. Quite often people do not have any symptoms or don't recognise them as symptoms. Maybe they should go back and tell their Docs they have trouble passing urine or are passing a lot more urine at night and having to get up a lot and maybe then they would be tested? Comes to something when you have to "fib" to get a test!

User
Posted 26 Dec 2018 at 20:16
His GP sounds like a prick.

Under NICE guidelines, the GP is obliged to give him a PSA test on request, having advised him of the pros and cons first. If his GP refuses again, can he see another GP in the same practice? Alternatively, he could look for a nearby well man clinic and get it done there instead. Some football clubs and men's organisations like Probus arrange PSA testing events and my husband's employer also offers it periodically for any male staff over a certain age (I think 50)

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

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User
Posted 23 Jun 2015 at 15:40

Add to that the lives lost due to folks being so frustrated at getting an appointment or feeling guilty about taking up busy GP time they don’t bother going to discuss health concerns in the first place. Perhaps its because I'm a male but the guilt bit is the excuse I make to myself.

Ray

User
Posted 23 Jun 2015 at 18:21

Our daughter in law was 28 when the GP sent her for testing for breast cancer but he refused to mark it as urgent because of her age. Diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer and lost a breast

Our daughter was 38 and treated for many years for IBS by our GP before she finally went private. Aggressive colo-rectal cancer and a colostomy. It was assumed she was too young for bowel cancer, an old persons disease.

Our grandson was 13 and treated for many months with many different antibiotics (which in themselves made him feel ill as he had so many of them) for recurrent throat infection, again our daughter had to take him private because he was getting weaker and weaker. By this time he had a lump in his neck but according to the doctor it was caused by the infection. Aggressive, inoperable naso pharyngeal carcinoma. GP assumed that at his age it had to be his tonsils.

We don't have much confidence in GPs in this family

Edited by member 23 Jun 2015 at 18:23  | Reason: Not specified

We can't control the winds - but we can adjust our sails
User
Posted 23 Jun 2015 at 19:24
That is a litany of despair, I sincerely hope it wasn't the same GP or do I hope it was? What an awful deal your family has had, I simply don't know what to say, it's appalling treatment.

With love and hope that treatment has worked for your family

Love Allison xxx

User
Posted 24 Jun 2015 at 09:09

No Alison, 3 different ones, although two in the same general area. I didn't add my niece into the above mix as she had lung cancer (smoker) but even though she kept saying she didn't think the cancer was gone they told her she was imagining it as it's a natural reaction. She was right, they were wrong and she died at 43, three years ago leaving two young children.

Our daughter in law had a rough ride but pulled through and never made a fuss about the breast.

Our grandson is now nearly 19. Aggressive, experimental treatment (there isn't a treatment plan for that particular cancer especially in children) has left him with a few problems but he is still with us and a qualified sailing instructor

Our daughter, makes no issues about having to carry a colostomy bag around with her. She regards the stoma as her little life saver. Her only regret and anger is that she was never taken seriously.

Our daughter's diagnosis was only one year after her son's and at one time they were both being treated together, although he had reached the interferon stage by then.

Then of course, we come to PC. There was no way we could make a fuss with all the rest of it behind us.
Like our grandson said when he was 13, "You just have to get on with it. You're not brave - you have no choice"

It does make you stop and wonder occasionally though where the next bolt from the blue is going to come from !

We can't control the winds - but we can adjust our sails
User
Posted 02 Oct 2016 at 14:41

Johsan,

I wish your post actually surprised me but it doesn't.  My whole journey so far has been a catalogue of late testing - ignored results and NHS mix ups.  None of us have confidence either.  Nothing short of a miracle would now restore my confidence in the NHS.  That is just what happened to me if i include what has happened to my partner and the rest of the family in the last few years from Doctors treating a symptom that wasn't the main problem and ignoring the main disease until it may be too late - thankfully it wasn't but it could have been.  Ah just makes me want to scream!

User
Posted 07 Oct 2016 at 14:00

first went to doctor with a problem, in July 2015. refered to urology at hospital. Got seen by a doctor there December 2015. PSA and digital, another PSA over christmas, more tests for the next few month. Biopsy in June, and diagnosed with PC in July 2016.
1 year.

User
Posted 07 Oct 2016 at 16:48
Thank goodness we seem to be lucky with our gp's. My OH had a PSA test along with other blood tests for something else. When he found the result was slightly raised the GP compared it to the previous 5 readings. My OH didn't even know he'd had any. Seems they had been doing it since he was 50. He'd never had symptoms so it seems they just tested it routinely.

Yet, several friends heard he'd been diagnosed with prostate cancer and asked their GP for a PSA test (different surgery) and were told no need if no symptoms. One friend is early 60's and can't get one done.

Makes me realise we are lucky as far as prostate cancer goes.

User
Posted 07 Oct 2016 at 20:20

That is very annoying. Quite often people do not have any symptoms or don't recognise them as symptoms. Maybe they should go back and tell their Docs they have trouble passing urine or are passing a lot more urine at night and having to get up a lot and maybe then they would be tested? Comes to something when you have to "fib" to get a test!

User
Posted 26 Dec 2018 at 19:50
First post here so please be gentle!

I'm 61 years old and was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in March 2018. I had NO symptoms to speak of and only went for a test because a friend had just been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer after complaining of back pain! To say I was surprised to find I too had prostate cancer was an understatement - in my case, apparently localised but Gleason 9. I underwent a radical prostatectomy in May and have just completed 33 sessions of radiotherapy as it turns out the cancer had spread locally. My reason for posting is however nothing to do with me but rather to seek advice: my brother in law (late 50's) had decided to ask his GP for a PSA test as besides me, he knows of at least two other male friends similarly affected and quite naturally is concerned; the problem is that his GP refuses to test him as he has no symptoms (even though brother in law explained about me!) I feel quite strongly about this (and indeed have become quite evangelical in telling others to get tested!) and am well aware that the test is far from perfect but it's all we've got and would like advice on behalf of my brother in law as to what he should do next - any suggestions?

Regards

Tigertone2000

User
Posted 26 Dec 2018 at 20:16
His GP sounds like a prick.

Under NICE guidelines, the GP is obliged to give him a PSA test on request, having advised him of the pros and cons first. If his GP refuses again, can he see another GP in the same practice? Alternatively, he could look for a nearby well man clinic and get it done there instead. Some football clubs and men's organisations like Probus arrange PSA testing events and my husband's employer also offers it periodically for any male staff over a certain age (I think 50)

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

User
Posted 27 Dec 2018 at 00:33

My OH was refused a PSA test a few years ago as he wasn't in a high risk group & had no symptoms. In April 2018 he was diagnosed PSA 9, Gleason 7 & T3a. He has also become a PSA evangelist to his friends. Four of them requested tests from their GP & three were initially refused, all went back & insisted on the test. Two are ok, one has been put on active surveillance & the other is having HIFU in January, PSA 4.35, Gleason 3+4, T2. As Lynn says under NICE guidelines if you request the test & have a discussion with the GP, symptoms or no symptoms you are entitled to it.

Abigail

 

User
Posted 27 Dec 2018 at 05:44

My experience was similar. My friends in America have annual DRE and PSA tests. They implored me to have the same ‘As they don’t test properly in Britain’.

I was on the GP’s couch in my underpants for abdominal pain (probably from humping Her Loveliness’s overweight suitcases half way across Italy), so I said to him, ‘While you’re down there, do a DRE’.

Response: ‘We don’t do that these days’, which was news to the urologist when, after the briefest of introductions, said ‘Pull your pants down, and knees up to your chest’.

At my behest, three friends in their fifties requested PSA blood tests at their next routine GP appointments, and all three were told testing was not necessary. I had told them this was likely, and all three insisted.

Two came out all clear, one had a raised PSA and an inconclusive MRI, and is now on quarterly tests.

I find it amazing that women are called in for routine mammograms and cervical smear tests, but there is no testing programme for prostate cancer.

Cheers, John.

Edited by member 27 Dec 2018 at 06:45  | Reason: Not specified

User
Posted 27 Dec 2018 at 12:00

Originally Posted by: Online Community Member

I find it amazing that women are called in for routine mammograms and cervical smear tests

 

Technically, we aren't. We get a letter every three years from our GP reminding us of the availability of a mammogram, accompanied by a leaflet spelling out all the risks - false negatives, false positives, infection, risk of over-treatment, etc. The difference is that GPs are paid a bonus if they get a decent % of female patients booking a test. As it stands, about 70% of women who were due a mammogram in 2017 turned up for it, and some of those had to be invited 2 or 3 times. The rate for eligible women attending for a smear is lower. 

 

Mammogram process is not a true screening programme - the smear test and the stool test at age 60 are the closest we get to true screening but the fact is that smear tests & bowel cancer tests are much more reliable than either mammograms or DRE/PSA.

 

 

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

User
Posted 27 Dec 2018 at 12:33
As I have said before, Her Loveliness has had two invitations for cervical smear tests, despite her cervix and the rest of her reproductive organs being consigned to a medical incinerator following hysterectomy three years ago.
User
Posted 27 Dec 2018 at 16:16

Whilst waiting in surgery this morning the message screen read Walsall are or will be passing referrals via a specialist to see if the referral can be other than the hospital such as medical centre or GP specialising in a condition.

By following links the current urology referral form asks whether a DRE shows hard or irregular prostate. The PSA cut of point for over 80 is 20. How will this impact on PCa diagnosis 

I'm trying to provide a link 

 


https://walsallccg.nhs.uk/about-us/clinical-referral-guidelines

 

Ray

Edited by member 27 Dec 2018 at 17:53  | Reason: Not specified

User
Posted 27 Dec 2018 at 19:22
Postcode lottery, privatisation of health care AND age discrimination all rolled into one - how depressing.
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

 
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