The Peninsula Cancer Alliance are pleased to announce the launch of the Non-Site Specific Cancer pathways in Trusts across Devon and Cornwall. Patients in areas served by hospitals in Plymouth, North Devon  and Truro now have access to a service for urgently investigating symptoms or signs that suggest cancer, but which do not fit any of the referral criteria for site-specific pathways. Areas served by hospitals in Exeter and Torbay will shortly be able to access the same service and we will keep you updated on this. To date around 50 patients have been referred on this pathway and at the point of last reporting the cancer conversion rate was 11%.

We know that GP suspicion of cancer is a powerful predictive tool sometimes not served well if the doctors clinical judgement is not matched with the criteria for one of the site specific routes, and we hope that provision of this pathway will allow GPs to pull into one place the various ways in which they have been managing this patient group.

These pathways are not a suitable means of investigating people with chronic symptoms in whom the GP has a low suspicion of cancer. To access this service, clinicians should read the Clinical Referral Guideline and Suspected Cancer Referral Forms. These will also be available on the formulary websites.