What proportion of patients referred to secondary care with iron deficiency anemia have colon cancer?
PURPOSE: Iron deficiency anemia can be the first presentation of right-sided colon cancer. There is an impression that because this presentation is nonspecific it may be associated with a longer delay from referral to diagnosis compared with those patients with symptoms of change in bowel habit and/or rectal bleeding caused by more distal colorectal cancer. This study was designed to determine the incidence of colon cancers in patients referred to the hospital with iron deficiency anemia and to determine what proportion of these patients were referred and diagnosed urgently in line with cancer waiting time targets. METHODS: A retrospective study was performed, including all patients referred to one district general hospital in 2003 whose blood indices met the criteria for significant iron deficiency anemia as defined by the Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer issued by the Department of Health in 1999, which defined iron deficiency anemia in the “target wait” criterion as a low he
