Symptoms give a one-in-20 higher chance of cancer diagnosis
Eight unexplained symptoms, which are most often linked to cancer, have been pinpointed by a team at Keele University, the BBC reports. Looking for symptoms that gave someone a one-in-20 or higher chance of a cancer diagnosis, they landed on the following: rectal blood, coughing up blood, breast lump or mass, difficulty swallowing, post-menopausal bleeding, abnormal prostate tests, blood in urine and anaemia. In the patient is below age 55, only two symptoms reach the “one in 20” threshold, they said: abnormal prostate tests and a breast lump. Still, there are more than 200 different types of cancer, with different symptoms, so any change in health should be checked out, they emphasized.