RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Urgent cancer referral guidelines: a retrospective cohort study of referrals for upper gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma JF British Journal of General Practice JO Br J Gen Pract FD British Journal of General Practice SP 611 OP 613 VO 54 IS 505 A1 Simon J Panter A1 Mike G Bramble A1 Hilda O'Flanagan A1 A Pali S Hungin YR 2004 UL http://bjgp.org/content/54/505/611.abstract AB Dyspepsia in primary care is common and guidelines indicate that patients with alarm symptoms, as defined by the urgent cancer referral guidelines, should be investigated by gastroscopy. The specificity and sensitivity of alarm symptoms is poor and only a small percentage of patients will turn out to have malignant disease. This primary care study shows that employing current guidelines will identify only 72% of patients at their initial visit to a general practitioner, but this figure could be increased to 86% if the guidelines included patients with weight loss or anaemia in the absence of dyspepsia. Past performance indicates that the majority of patients with the commonest symptom complex were not referred quickly and less than half were seen within 4 weeks.