Cancer Resources

What most people are looking for when they visit their general practice is certainty. They might want to know the exact cause of their chronic pain, or precisely how long it might take for statins to bring down their cholesterol levels, or any number of other questions

A primary concern for many cancer survivors is getting cancer again or it returning. Unfortunately, recurrence can happen but there is evidence that dietary interventions, generally combined with physical activity, improve overall quality of life and give the body the best chance of warding off recurrence. Being the right weight for height is also important.This article explores dietary and lifestyle considerations, dispels some myths, and considers other aspects of diet and lifestyle and prevention of cancer recurrence, such as alcohol intake, physical activity and food-borne disease. It also looks at the role certain sweeteners may have, along with ultra-processed foods, use of certain supplements and the role of fibre. Definitive evidence is often not available for this aspect of cancer, but this article presents the most up-to-date findings. Specialist post treatment palliative care is not covered.

Ovarian cancer affects women around the world and is a devastating diagnosis not only for the woman affected, but also her family and friends. Symptoms are such that both the patient and clinician may mistakenly attribute them to some other cause, leading to a delay in investigation. For this reason, many women are diagnosed late when spread of the cancer has already occurred, leading to poorer prognosis. This article hopes to give general
practice nurses (GPNs) and non-medical prescribers an insight into this disease, so that they will have a high index of suspicion when patients present with non-specific symptoms, leading to earlier diagnosis and hopefully better outcomes.

There is a variability and inconsistency in how GPs carry out cancer care reviews (Meiklejohn et al, 2016). Many people report feeling abandoned after treatment finishes (Scottish Cancer Experience Survey 2015/16). This article looks at an evaluation undertaken by NHS Lanarkshire as part of the Macmillan Transforming Care after Treatment (TCAT) programme to ascertain the acceptability and feasibility of general practice nurses (GPNs) taking on the role of delivering cancer care reviews using a Macmillan Holistic Needs Assessment Tool. After Macmillan cancer training, 10 GPNs invited people with a new diagnosis to a cancer care review. A concerns checklist was sent to the patients before the review. Four hundred people were invited, with 250 accepting the offer. People reported that the time afforded by the GPN was valued and they saw them as a point of contact in the future. Fatigue, pain and worry were the top three concerns raised. It was concluded that, with training, GPNs can offer quality-assured cancer care reviews and therefore shift some of the workload from GPs.

Primarily due to better treatment options, there are now over two and a half million people living with cancer in the United Kingdom and it is predicted that in the next fourteen years this number will increase to four million. This means that the numbers of people living with cancer in the UK has increased by approximately half a million in the last five years (Maddams et al, 2012). When all cancers are grouped  together, someone diagnosed with cancer today has double the chance of being alive in ten years time compared to someone diagnosed with cancer during the 1970s (Quaresma et al, 2014). This paper will now take three of the four most common cancers in the UK and look at them individually, i.e. breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer.

Getting patients to access the care they need is not always easy, here Jason Beckford-Ball spoke to Laura Westwick about a project in east London that is connecting cancer patients with local services.

Too often in health care we are guilty of working alone and not utilising colleagues and services around us, even though they may have expertise and experience that might help us do our jobs better.