EKU Podcast: Updates in detecting cancer in primary care

It is estimated that there are almost 3.5 million people living with cancer in the UK and on average someone is diagnosed with cancer at least every 75 seconds (UK). In this podcast Dr Thomas Round talks to Professor Willie Hamilton, a Professor of Primary Care Cancer Research about the updates to cancer detection in primary care. They reflect on why primary care is so important in this area, the changing epidemiology in cancer and cancer in younger people including the increase in colorectal cancer. They discuss the changes in cancer screening e.g. cervical cancer (introduction of home screening) and bowel cancer (age reduction and Faecal immunochemical test (FIT) thresholds), Positive Predictive Value (PPV), symptomatic presentations, difficult to diagnose cancers and atypical presentations. They also offer top tips for everyday practice and signpost to useful resources.

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References

• Best4: Screening for oesophageal health problems
• NHS Galleri Trail: Detecting cancer early
• Jess’s Rule: Three strikes and we rethink
• ERICA Study. Prof. Willie Hamilton
• Save T, Neal R D, Round T. A multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test: clinical update for GPs. British Journal of General Practice 2024; 74 (745): 380-382. 
• Wiering B, Mounce LTA, Price SJ, et al. The impact of morbidity burden on cancer diagnosis; a retrospective cohort study in England. Cancer Epidemiol. 2026 Feb 27;102:103027. 

Further reading
RCGP eLearning courses on:

• Behaviour change and cancer prevention
• Bloating and Other Abdominal Symptoms: Could it be Ovarian Cancer?
• Breast Cancer Screening - The Essentials
• Cancer detection in primary care
• Colorectal Cancer
• Early diagnosis of cancer in young adults
• Lung Cancer
• Pancreatic Cancer: Early Diagnosis in General Practice
• Primary cancer care toolkit
• Prostate Cancer: Early Diagnosis in General Practice
• Cancer care | One Day Essentials | REWIND (available until 26.05.26)