Common blood tests could improve cancer diagnosis for people with stomach pain or bloating

Medical Xpress / University College London / PLoS Medicine ^ | July 30, 2024 | Rafiq M, Renzi C et al

[ConservativeMind]

The results of routine blood tests could be used to speed up cancer diagnosis among people with stomach pain or bloating, suggests a study.

The study looked at data from more than 400,000 people aged 30 or older in the UK who had visited a GP due to stomach pain and more than 50,000 who had visited their GP due to bloating. Two thirds of this group had blood tests following their appointment.

In the new study, the researchers found that people aged 60 or over who had gone to the GP with either stomach pain or bloating had a high enough risk to warrant an urgent cancer referral (that is, their risk was higher than 3%) regardless of blood test results.

Risk of cancer was estimated to be 3.1% for men in their 60s reporting stomach pain, rising to 8.6% for men in their 80s with this symptom. For women in these age groups, the risk was 3.1%, rising to 6.1%.

In the UK study sample, the researchers found that, among people aged 30 to 59 years with abdominal pain or bloating, anemia, low albumin, raised platelets, abnormal ferritin, and increased inflammatory markers strongly predicted a risk of undiagnosed cancer.

In women aged 50 to 59 with abdominal bloating, pre-blood test cancer risk of 1.6% increased to 10% with raised ferritin, to 9% with low albumin, to 8% with raised platelets, to 6% with raised inflammatory markers and to 4% with anemia.

Currently, only raised platelets and anemia are included in guidelines for cancer referral.

The study also showed which types of cancer were most common for people with these symptoms. Overall, bowel cancer was most common, followed by prostate and pancreatic cancer in men, while in women bowel cancer was followed by breast and ovarian cancer.

[ConservativeMind]

For those with “abdominal pain or bloating, anemia, low albumin, raised platelets, abnormal ferritin, and increased inflammatory markers strongly predicted a risk of undiagnosed cancer”

This is a way to greatly improve very early cancer diagnosis from mostly routine blood tests, when noting continued stomach pains or bloating.

[ConservativeMind]

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[NWFree]

And a blood test for Alzheimer’s and a blood test for colon cancer ….

[tired&retired]

Absolutely. I’ve had colon and lung cancer.

At Duke university hospital they did tissue samples and identified proteins in my blood associated with the tumors. These proteins are markers in my blood for cancer.

Every three months I go in for follow up blood tests. So far, totally clean. I lost 22 inches of my large intestine the first time and over half of my left lung the second time. Thankfully, never needed chemo or radiation.

Pretty sure it has to do with my desire to return home, but God keeps sending me back.

[Albion Wilde]

I think they mean “abdominal” pain, not “stomach” pain. You have to read far into the article to see the word “abdominal.”

Stomach pain can be strictly gastric or digestive. The word “abdominal” is more likely to imply most of the the major organs below the heart and lungs—liver, gall bladder, pancreas, intestines, kidneys/bladder system, female reproductive organs, and yes, the actual stomach.