ALMOST one in five cancer patients in Dorset are only diagnosed after an emergency admission to hospital, figures show.

The survival rates of emergency admission are substantially worse than routine referrals as patients are more likely to have more advanced and difficult to treat cancers.

Now Cancer Research UK has called for more awareness, better training of GPs and increased resources for the NHS to help ensure more people are diagnosed early.

In the 12 months to March, 4,568 patients were admitted to hospital with cancer in the NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group area, according to data published by Public Health England.

Most will have been referred by their GP or other routes such as breast or cervical screening programmes.

But 867 patients - 19 per cent - were classed as an ‘emergency presentation of cancer’, meaning they were first diagnosed at the hospital, after coming to A&E, for example, or while being treated for something else.

And figures for April to June last year reveal 43 per cent of patients diagnosed in Dorset had the more advanced stage three of stage four cancers.

Fiona Osgun of Cancer Research UK said it was important for patients to see their GP if they noticed a change in their body.

“Your chances of survival can change so much if the cancer is diagnosed earlier or later”, she said.

“Generally, if the symptoms are severe enough to cause an emergency presentation, it is highly likely that the cancer is advanced.

“The treatments that we know give the best chance of cure like surgery are either harder to do or aren’t medically viable at stage three or four.

“So your treatment options are limited, and in some cases you’re not going to be treating the patient for a cure by that point, but treating them palliatively.”

According to the latest annual Cancer Patient Experience Survey, 14 per cent of cancer patients in Dorset who went to their GP surgery with a cancer-related health complaint before they were diagnosed said they saw their GP three or four times before being told to go to hospital.

A further 8 per cent had five or more appointments.

But the reasons behind emergency presentations are “complex” and not necessarily the result of symptoms being missed by GPs, Ms Ogsun said.

Some cancers, such as brain cancer, have more vague or more sudden symptoms than others, while GPs are also reliant on the wider NHS system to investigate quickly after a referral.