A study looking at symptoms which could be caused by cancer coming back after treatment

Please note this trial is no longer recruiting patients.

This study is looking at the sort of symptoms that make people who have previously had cancer go to see their family doctor (GP).

After treatment for cancer of the breast, lung, prostate or bowel, you have follow up appointments with your specialist doctor. But after a few years, if you remain well, these appointments may stop. After that, you are encouraged to go to your GP if you have any new symptoms, or if you are worried about anything.

New symptoms may be caused by the cancer coming back or spreading somewhere else in the body (a recurrence). But they could also be caused by something else entirely.

In this study, the researchers are looking back at the medical notes of people who have had symptoms some time after treatment for cancer. They will look at the medical notes of people whose cancer had come back as well as people whose symptoms were caused by something else. They will look at the type of symptoms that people had. And for those with a cancer recurrence, they will look at the time that passed between them first going to their doctor and finding out that their cancer had come back.

The aim of the trial is to look for common symptoms of cancer recurrence. This may help doctors in the future to spot the signs that cancer may have come back.

Please note - you will not get any direct benefit from taking part in this study and it will not affect your treatment in anyway.

Recruitment

Start 01/11/2008

End 31/12/2010

Phase

Other

Who can enter

You can enter this trial if you have had treatment for breast, lung, prostate or bowel cancer in the past, and you are registered with one of the GPs involved in this study in the Devon Primary Care Trust.

You cannot volunteer to take part in this study. Your GP practice will send you a letter asking you to take part.