Does Emergency Diagnosis of Cancer Mean General Practitioners Missed Symptoms?

​Contrary to some assumptions, emergency presentations of cancer do not necessarily suggest that general practitioners are missing the signs of cancer, according to the authors of an April 24, 2017, study in the British Journal of General Practice. The authors studied patient data on 4,647 patients in Great Britain who were diagnosed with cancer through emergency presentation in 2010. About one-third of patients (1,349, 29%) had no prior consultation with a general practitioner before the emergency presentation.