Table of Contents

1 Introduction 2 Evaluating Risk - Concepts and Terminology 3 Screening and Early Diagnosis of Cancer 4 Non-specific Symptoms 5 Breast Cancer 6 Colorectal Cancer 7 Lung Cancer 8 Urological Cancer 9 Skin Cancers 10 Ovarian Cancer 11 Upper Gastrointestinal Cancers 12 Gynaecological Cancers 13 Brain Tumours 14 Childhood Cancer 15 Haematological Malignancies 16 Testicular Cancer 17 Head, Neck and Thyroid Cancers 18 Case Histories

About the Author

Dr Hamilton comes from a background of clinical and academic general practice. His medical career began in hospital medicine, including 2 years as a physician in Malawi, followed by 11 years as a principal (and senior partner) in general practice. He is now a full-time primary care researcher, funded by the NHS. His main research interest is in diagnosis in primary care, particularly that of cancer, and he recently completed three diagnostic studies for the Department of Health on colorectal, prostate and lung cancers. The colorectal results in particular have borne fruit, in that further studies on a tool for earlier diagnosis of this cancer have been funded by the DoH. Dr Hamilton is a founder member of the NRCI Primary Care Studies Development Group (the umbrella organisation for cancer studies in primary care) and the NICE Guideline Development Group for CFS/ME. He has written over 50 peer-reviewed publications, largely in the field of diagnosis, with cancer being the largest topic. Dr Hamilton also co-edited the 2nd edition of 'Orthopaedics in Primary Care', which involved the key skill of translating orthopaedic surgeons language into English! His writing is not just the dry format of research papers: he has written editorials for the BMJ and BJGP, lighter pieces for the back pages of the BJGP and a lengthy piece on constipation for BMJ learning! As well as his medical qualifications he has a certificate in literature (with merit!) from the University of Exeter. Professor Peters is a statistician by background, with an interest and track record in risk assessment that commenced with his PhD in the field of perinatal and paediatric epidemiology undertaken at the University of Exeter about 20 years ago. His interests evolved into primary care research in general, and randomised trials in particular (including issues of cancer treatment and screening) during a series of academic posts first at Cardiff and, since 1992, at the University of Bristol. He is a member of the NCRI Palliative Care Clinical Studies Development Group, and is Director of the NCRI-accredited Bristol Randomised Trials Collaboration. He has extensive experience on regional and national grants committees, including the NHS Health Technology Assessment Commissioning Board and the MRC Health Services and Public Health Research Board. He is a member of the Primary Care and Other Community Based Subjects panel for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, is a co-editor of the journal Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology and is on the Editorial Board of the British Journal of General Practice. Professor Peters has ongoing interest in communicating statistical methods and the results of complex research designs and data analyses to a general clinical audience. He is an author of over 200 peer-reviewed publications, on two occasions winning the RCGP/Boots the Chemists Research Paper of the Year Award. He has co-edited the book 'Screening in Obstetrics and Gynecology', which has recently been extensively revised in a second edition.

Reviews

BMA Book Awards 2008 - Commended "Excellent summary of the challenges in diagnosing cancer in general practice. This is a well-presented concise summary of the available evidence that is not available in other texts currently."