GPs ‘should not ignore gut feeling over cancer suspicions’

FAMILY DOCTORS should not ignore their gut instincts when they suspect a patient has cancer, a study suggests.

Researchers conducted an analysis of studies which examined whether or not patients went on to receive a cancer diagnosis following their GP recording a “gut feeling” their patient had cancer. The study, published in the British Journal of General Practice, found that when GPs had a gut feeling that their patient had cancer they were significantly more likely to later receive a diagnosis.

The gut feeling was more predictive as familiarity with the patient increased, and also increased with a GP’s experience, the study found.

Gut instincts are often hard to track by researchers.

But the study examined data from 12 papers and four web resources on a gut feeling felt by family doctors.

The pooled odds of a cancer diagnosis were four times higher when gut feelings were recorded, according to the researchers from the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics.

“A cancer diagnosis was more likely in patients for whom the GP had a gut feeling compared with patients for whom the GP experienced no gut feeling,” the authors wrote.

They wrote that guidelines on suspected cancer for GPs suggest that family doctors should trust their own and their patients’ intuition. But the authors wrote that some GPs have been rejected for referring their patients due to gut instincts. They said: “GPs reported varying success of integrating gut feelings into clinical practice: some were able to refer patients based on gut feeling, but others recounted instances when referrals made because of a gut feeling had been rejected by specialist colleagues due to a perceived lack of clinical evidence.”