MPs call for more blood cancer testing

A group of MPs is urging doctors to offer blood tests to people with one or more potential symptom of blood cancer.

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Blood Cancer has published a report called The ‘hidden’ cancer: the need to improve blood cancer care which recommends that GPs routinely test for the disease.

The report says that despite being the fifth most common cancer in the UK, it is often misdiagnosed as symptoms can be vague, and are often put down to other health problems such as flu.

GPs agree that there is a lack of knowledge about blood cancer among the public, but say they are already under pressure and need more resources before adding further blood tests to their workload.

Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said: “We need greater awareness generally of blood cancer as a condition.

“But they also suggest that GPs should be doing far more testing, and that’s not necessarily an evidence based suggestion. And it doesn’t really take into consideration the difficulty that general practice is facing at the moment.

“We have an under-resourced general practice, we are very short staffed, we are short of GPs and nurses. And also diagnostic tests and imaging are not always as readily available in the community as we would like.”