Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) Blog
Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) Blog
Posted by jchoules
17 August 2017
Cancer is one of the greatest health concerns in the developed world, with approximately 14 million new cases per year across the globe.(1) In the UK, cancer survival is poorer than in the US and in many other European countries. Much research is focused on finding out why this is, and developing strategies to improve cancer outcomes in the UK. Diagnosing cancer earlier is a key strategy to improving survival for patients; when cancer is diagnosed at an earlier stage, it is easier to treat, and patients are likely to survive for longer.
The DISCO team, based at the University of Exeter Medical School, carries out research in the area of cancer diagnostics. We recently completed a study investigating platelet count as a potential diagnostic marker of cancer.(2) Platelets are small cells in the blood which are involved in blood clotting processes and in immune response. A normal platelet count is 150–400 x109/l; anything over 400 is a raised platelet count, known as thrombocytosis. The platelet count is measured as part of a routine blood test.
We found that thrombocytosis is an important risk marker of cancer. We compared the proportion of new cancer cases in two groups of patients; those with thrombocytosis and those with a normal platelet count. The results showed that 11% of men and 6% of women with thrombocytosis were diagnosed with cancer, compared to 4% of men and 2% of women with a normal platelet count.
These figures are exciting as they show that thrombocytosis could be used by general practitioners to identify patients to send for further investigation for cancer earlier; perhaps before other symptoms begin. In the study, a third of lung and colorectal cancer patients with thrombocytosis had no other ‘alarm’ symptoms that would have prompted cancer investigations in the year before they were diagnosed. If thrombocytosis was recognised as a risk marker of cancer, that third of lung cancer patients would have their diagnosis made earlier – which could make the difference in earlier diagnosis and longer survival.
Sarah Bailey
Research Fellow
DISCO group, University of Exeter Medical School
s.e.r.bailey@exeter.ac.uk
1. Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Ervik M, Dikshit R, Eser S, Mathers C et al. GLOBOCAN 2012 v1.0, Cancer Incidence and Mortality Worldwide: IARC CancerBase No. 11 Lyon, France: International Agency for Research on Cancer; 2013.
2. Bailey SER, Ukoumunne O, Shephard EA, Hamilton W. Clinical relevance of thrombocytosis in primary care: a prospective cohort study of cancer incidence using English electronic medical records and cancer registry data. British Journal of General Practice.2017; 67 (659): e405-e413.