New ‘risk marker’ for cancer hailed by scientists

THOUSANDS OF cancer patients could have their disease detected earlier every year thanks to scientists identifying a new “risk marker” for cancer.

Researchers have found that patients who have a high blood platelet count – which can be identified through a simple blood test – are significantly more likely to go on to develop cancer than those who do not.

Some of these patients have a raised blood platelet count, known as thrombocytosis, before they even suffer symptoms of cancer.

Showing a high platelet count could prompt early investigations, researchers said.

And detecting cancer sooner means that patients have better chances of survival.

The University of Exeter Medical School said that the study has revealed the first new indicator of cancer to have been robustly identified in 30 years.

Researchers from the university said that thrombocytosis has recently been recognised to have diagnostic potential. But no study has looked at GP data on whether having a high platelet count leads to cancer diagnosis of any sort.

The authors looked at data for 40,000 patients using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink – which holds anonymised patient records from 8 per cent of UK GP practices – and linked information from the English Cancer Registry.

The study, published in the British Journal of General Practice, looked at data for patients over the age of 40 who had a primary care full blood count taken.

They found that 11.6 per cent of men and 6.2 per cent of women with thrombocytosis went on to be diagnosed with cancer within a year.

This rose to 18.1 per cent of men and 10.1 per cent of women if a second raised platelet count was recorded within six months.

As a result, GPs should consider further investigations into possible cancer if a patient has a high blood platelet count, they concluded.