New Clues for Detecting Colorectal Cancers Earlier

Patients saw their family doctor significantly more often in the year before their diagnosis than did people without cancer

A study of how often people visit their doctor may offer a way to help detect colorectal cancers earlier.

The study, in the International Journal of Cancer, found patients with colorectal cancers saw their family doctor significantly more often in the year before their diagnosis than did people without cancer. Before they were diagnosed, the cancer patients, also had more blood tests for anemia and prescriptions for hemorrhoids, which are associated with colorectal cancer, the researchers said.

Researchers in Denmark used a national health database to identify 19,209 people diagnosed with first-time colorectal cancers and 192,090 cancer-free controls from 2004 to 2010. Controls were matched with the cancer patients by age, sex and physician practice. The subjects were 67 years old, on average, and just over half of them were men. Of the group with cancer, roughly one-third had rectal cancers and the rest had colon cancers.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-clues-for-detecting-colorectal-cancers-1433778145