Are cancer awareness campaigns helpful?

Whilst looking through tweets this week, I noticed one tweet from Beating Bowel Cancer talking about an article in the Daily Mail this week where a doctor questioned the usefulness of cancer awareness campaigns.  I have never been a fan of the Daily Mail; or the "Fascist Today" as my Uncle recently called it!! But I must admit that they do have a very good health section, so I checked out the article.

The headline of the article is "Campaigns like this don't save lives - they just clog my surgery with people scared witless" and it reflects the opinions of Dr Tony Copperfield.  He is referring to the new Lung Cancer awareness campaign, where people are advised to get a cough checked out if it has been present for more than 3 weeks.  He also refers to the Bowel Cancer Awareness campaign where he commented that "at first I was puzzled why so many of my patients were coming to see me complaining only of diarrhoea. I couldn’t work out why my usually sensible patients were all so obsessed with their bowel movements".  He then goes on to blame the campaign on a busy surgery who were scared witless about their symptoms.

This part of the article made me very cross indeed! I was diagnosed before the awareness campaign started and to be honest if my GP was more aware that a 32 year old who presents all of the symptoms of bowel cancer might actually have bowel cancer then I would not have 'clogged' up my surgery, the out of hours doctors service or blocked a bed in hospital for 4 days.  As I have already said it took me 5 visits to the doctors before I was referred for an initial ultrasound which found inflammation in my bowel.  I am also very aware that my story is far from unusual; I have been in touch with quite a large number of young people who are suffering from bowel cancer.  The bowel cancer campaign was very comprehensive with their signs and symptoms of bowel cancer; and what is also useful is that these can also be symptoms of other bowel conditions.  I believe that having a 'clogged up' surgery is a small price to pay for potentially saving lives.

I do however agree with some of what he says about the lung cancer campaign; the campaigns main message is that if you have a cough for more than 3 weeks then you should get it checked out.  This isn't a comprehensive list of symptoms, as Dr Copperfield writes "GPs are trained to put symptoms in context. The likelihood that you have lung cancer, for example, doesn’t just depend on whether you have a cough but on whether there’s an obvious alternative explanation like a virus infection, as well as your age (lung cancer is most common in people between 75 and 79), and — very important — whether you smoke or have ever smoked. But this type of campaign ignores the context. The result is a simplistic message which might make a snappy headline — but which will worry a lot of people."

So, as far as I am concerned a "good" campaign with a comprehensive list of possible symptoms is useful; I know personally of people who have been encouraged by the bowel cancer awareness campaign to get checked out.  Luckily none of those have been diagnosed with cancer, but they have been found to have polyps or inflammation, which have been treated.

You can read more here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2154687/Campaigns-like-dont-save-lives--just-clog-surgery-people-scared-witless.html#ixzz1xHcpGMR3

Much Love Cx