TY - JOUR T1 - Assessment of cancer risk in men and women JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 4 LP - 5 DO - 10.3399/bjgp13X660607 VL - 63 IS - 606 AU - Jon Emery Y1 - 2013/01/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/63/606/4.abstract N2 - A core element of primary care’s role in cancer care is the assessment of cancer risk. Not only do we need to assess the future (or underlying) risk of someone developing cancer, for example based on their family history and lifestyle factors,1 we also need to assess the risk that someone has an underlying cancer now. This requires assessment of current symptoms as well as their underlying cancer risk factors to determine whether further investigation is required.Diagnosing cancer in general practice is difficult due to the non-specific nature of symptoms associated with common cancers in primary care.2 A national audit of 2-week wait referrals for suspected cancer reported in this journal confirmed these challenges: only 11% of fast-track referrals were eventually diagnosed as cancer, and only 43% of cancers were referred via this route.3 These referral routes relied on the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines for suspected cancer which, when published in 2005, had limited evidence derived from primary care on the predictive value of symptoms. Since then the body of evidence has grown dramatically. … ER -