STOMACH PAIN, BLOODING: When is this a possible sign of cancer?

The study analyzes data from more than 400,000 participants aged 30 who consulted due to stomach pain and more than 50,000 who consulted due to bloating. Two thirds of these participants had blood tests after their appointment. The analysis finds that:

• for 19 commonly prescribed blood tests, abnormal results are well linked to a higher risk of cancer diagnosis within a year;
• 1 in 50 patients (2.2%) who visited their GP to report stomach pain were diagnosed with cancer in the following 12 months;
• the same proportion (2.2%) of patients who consulted for bloating were also diagnosed with cancer within the year;
• among participants aged 30 to 59 years with abdominal pain or bloating, anemia, low albumin, increased platelets, abnormal ferritin, and increased inflammatory markers strongly predicted undiagnosed cancer risk;
• for example, in women aged 50 to 59 with abdominal bloating, the pre-blood test cancer risk of 1.6% increased to 10% with increased ferritin, to 9% with low albumin , 8% in the event of an increase in platelets, 6% in the event of an increase in inflammatory markers and 4% in the event of anemia;
• if these abnormal results had been taken into account, 16% more patients with undiagnosed cancer would have been urgently referred to a specialist, compared to the standard assessment, based only on symptoms, age and gender;
• this represents, in concrete terms, 6 additional patients with undiagnosed cancer referred urgently out of 1,000 patients who consulted for stomach pain or bloating;
• this figure is added to the 40 cancer patients who were referred urgently, without taking into account the results of the blood tests.

Lead author Dr Meena Rafiq, from the Department of Behavioral and Health Sciences at UCL explains that “ it is possible to improve cancer detection through blood tests that are already available and are routinely prescribed to patients with non-specific symptoms whose cause is unclear”.

These analyzes therefore constitute an effective and affordable way to improve the early diagnosis of cancer,

without additional inconvenience for the patient

However, this additional chance of detection requires an automated tool capable of assessing cancer risk based on several variables.

Currently, only platelet increases and anemia are included in cancer specialist referral guidelines.