As per a recent report published in the Lancet Oncology, it has been revealed that patients at risks of developing several types of cancer such as colon, ovarian and lung cancer have to face delays in their diagnosis because of carelessness of their GPs.

A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge conducted a survey on more than 40,000 cancer patients and revealed that while some of patients were recommended by their GPs to have an investigation about a possible disease. The others had to visit their GPs several times before they were referred for an investigation.

Nevertheless, some 10% of patients with melanoma and 7% of those with breast cancer were referred to a GP after three or more visits to GPs. The figures were found to be relatively high amongst patients of pancreatic cancers, ovarian cancer, multiple myeloma and Hodgkin's lymphoma. It was noted that 41% pancreatic cancer patients as well as nearly 33% of colon cancer patients made more than three visits to GPs before being referred.

It was also found by the team of researchers that GPs tended to take symptoms of serious diseases as a mere infection sometimes, which led to late diagnosis of patients. It is evident from an instance of women with bladder cancer, who are often misunderstood to have a bladder infection or gynaecological condition.

The team says that this kind of fault sometimes causes severe problem for patients as they become unable to recover properly. It has been told by a spokeswoman for Department of Health that government has planned a funding of £450 million in order to encourage early diagnosis of cancer and save more lives. "This money will give GPs' direct access to tests to allow quicker diagnosis”, said she.