Research Round-up – December 2019 – Professor Vicki White
Dr Kristi Milley speaks to Professor Vicki White, Professor of Psycho-Oncology at the Faculty of Health at Deakin University. She was lead author on ‘The pathway to diagnosis and treatment for surgically managed lung cancer patients’ published recently in the journal Family Practice. The study scrutinised looked at pathways for patients with operable lung cancer to identify factors contributing to early diagnosis. Professor White gives background on the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership and Cancer Research UK. Professor White’s research looked at Module 4 – looking at differences in diagnostic intervals – how long it took patients to respond to symptoms and visit a general practitioner, the investigation and then how long it took for patients to be recommended specialist care. She talks about the differences observed between the symptomatic and non-symptomatic diagnostic routes within the study and how primary care providers can help to improve the diagnostic pathways and reduce these intervals for lung cancer patients. Professor White believes that there is a lot of improvement that GPs can do to make a clearer pathway into treatment and into the diagnosis process.
Article
Victoria White, Rebecca J Bergin, Robert J Thomas, Kathryn Whitfield, David Weller, The pathway to diagnosis and treatment for surgically managed lung cancer patients, Family Practice, cmz064, https://doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmz064
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