Patients who have had a screening test — a blood-based cancer test, FIT or mammogram — sometimes discount new symptoms, and so do clinicians. Screening tests have limited sensitivity, especially for early disease, and a negative result says nothing about symptoms that begin afterwards.
- Investigate new symptoms on their merits, whatever a recent screening result showed
- Tell patients having any screening test that a negative result does not rule out cancer
- Record the date and result of screening tests, but do not let them close a symptomatic referral
- Be especially alert to interval cancers between screening rounds
Why it matters
False reassurance from screening can delay diagnosis of a symptomatic cancer.
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