Better awareness among GPs of the “vague” symptoms of a type of blood cancer could extend the lives of hundreds of people every year, according to a charity.
Myeloma is a type of bone marrow cancer that develops when abnormal plasma cells grow too quickly.
It mostly affects people over the age of 65, with symptoms including persistent bone pain, particularly in the spine, hips and chest, as well as tiredness, shortness of breath, repeated infections and anaemia.
Rhys Owens, of Myeloma UK, said the charity is trying to stress to family doctors the impact of delayed diagnosis of the disease.
Speaking ahead of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) annual conference in Liverpool, where Myeloma UK held a session, he told the PA news agency: “It takes, on average, from first symptoms to getting diagnosed with myeloma, 163 days, which is one of the longest of any cancer.
“With that timeframe, patient symptoms are going to get worse, more of them are going to get diagnosed via an emergency route as well, rather than through a GP, and we know that that also leads to poorer outcomes.”
According to Myeloma UK research, the one-year survival rate for patients diagnosed with the illness in A&E is 62% compared with 88% in patients diagnosed by a GP.
“There’s quite a big difference there, and that’s down to the fact that, if they go to A&E, their disease is going to be more advanced, and they’re going to have more of those emergency issues like severe kidney damage that might require dialysis, and very severe anaemia,” Mr Owens said.
The charity estimates around 24,000 people are affected by myeloma in the UK, with an estimated 5,900 new diagnoses each year.
Mr Owens told PA the disease is particularly difficult to diagnose due to its symptoms.
“The symptoms are very common, but they’re very vague as well, which means it is quite tricky for GPs to diagnose. But relative to the symptoms that patients exhibit, it’s a relatively rare form.
“So a GP might see one case every three to five years, despite seeing a lot of the symptoms that it has on a daily basis.
“It’s about trying to figure out from the patient they see in front of them, which ones they need to test for myeloma, which ones need to be referred, and so on.”
One patient, Mark Scott, shared his experience with delayed diagnosis with delegates at the conference.
His symptoms started in January 2018 – he had lower back pain after taking up running as a New Year resolution.
It took more than 200 days for him to get a myeloma diagnosis, during which he saw numerous GPs, A&E doctors and physiotherapists.
Mr Scott, a teacher, compared his situation to “horses and zebras”.
“When you hear hooves, you think of horses, you don’t think of zebras,” he said.
“So when a middle-aged man, who’s fit-ish, active-ish, slightly overweight-ish, presents at the GP’s with a sore back and absolutely no other symptom, you’re not going to go ‘Oh, you must be one of the 2% of people in their 40s with myeloma’.
“That’s not an obvious diagnosis route, you’re going to think this person has a bad back.”
Mr Owens added: “As we know, GPs are under a lot of pressure at the moment, and obviously when people come in with with symptoms of any kind, then there’s a whole host of different diseases at play that could be the cause.
“What we’re trying to do at Myeloma UK is increase awareness and provide some education to GPs to have it more at the forefront when they are seeing these patients, to try and help them and test more patients if they suspect that myeloma might be playing a part in those symptoms.”
