Timeliness of Presentation and Referral Among Cancer Patients Who Presented With Abdominal Symptoms: Evidence to Inform Symptom Awareness Campaigns

Background: Abdominal symptoms at presentation are common among patients subsequently diagnosed with cancer. While public health education campaigns in England and other countries have traditionally focused on u0027red flagu0027 symptoms associated with a single common cancer (e.g., u0027blood in poou0027 and colorectal cancer), there is increasing interest in raising awareness of symptoms grouped by body area or system (eg u0027abdominal symptomsu0027). Evidence regarding the frequency and nature of abdominal symptoms at presentation among a representative cancer patient cohort could inform the design and evaluation of community based cancer symptom awareness campaigns. Aim: To describe the frequency of abdominal symptoms at presentation among an incident cohort of cancer patients, examine variation in diagnostic timeliness and subsequently diagnosed cancer sites by abdominal symptom. Methods: The presenting symptom(s) of 15,956 cancer patients from a national audit of primary care records in England was coded into symptom cate...