Table 3 Nature, number and duration of symptoms in patients referred to the MDC.
Reported symptoms | As only selected symptom | With other symptoms | All occurrences | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
N | % | N | % | N | % | |
Weight loss | 579 | 20.3 | 1,295 | 45.4 | 1874 | 65.7 |
GP clinical suspicion | 124 | 4.3 | 904 | 31.7 | 1028 | 36.1 |
Pain | 248 | 8.7 | 678 | 23.8 | 926 | 32.5 |
Nausea/appetite loss | 26 | 0.9 | 817 | 28.7 | 843 | 29.6 |
Fatigue | 18 | 0.6 | 528 | 18.5 | 546 | 19.2 |
Anaemia | 40 | 1.4 | 256 | 9 | 296 | 10.4 |
Change in bowel habit | 9 | 0.3 | 119 | 4.2 | 128 | 4.5 |
General condition | 6 | 0.2 | 97 | 3.4 | 103 | 3.6 |
Respiratory problem | 5 | 0.2 | 67 | 2.4 | 72 | 2.5 |
Thrombocytosis | 4 | 0.1 | 19 | 0.7 | 23 | 0.8 |
Jaundice | 9 | 0.3 | 10 | 0.4 | 19 | 0.7 |
Hypercalcaemia | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0.3 | 8 | 0.3 |
New-onset diabetes | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.1 | 3 | 0.1 |
Other symptom(s) (only) | 43 | 1.5 | N/A | N/A | 43 | 1.5 |
Unknown | 110 | N/A | ||||
Number of selected symptoms reported | N | % | ||||
None | 43 | 1.5 | ||||
1 | 1068 | 37.5 | ||||
2 | 879 | 30.8 | ||||
3 | 515 | 18.1 | ||||
4 | 244 | 8.6 | ||||
5 | 90 | 3.2 | ||||
6 | 12 | 0.4 | ||||
Overall number of symptoms per case** | ||||||
1 or fewer | 1234 | 43.3 | ||||
2 or more | 1617 | 56.7 | ||||
Reported symptom duration | ||||||
Less than 1 week | 25 | 1.3 | ||||
1–4 weeks | 348 | 17.9 | ||||
5–12 weeks | 507 | 26.0 | ||||
3–6 months | 573 | 29.4 | ||||
Over 6 months | 496 | 25.5 | ||||
Unknown | 1012 | N/A | ||||
