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EDITORIALS: Robin Fox and John Fletcher Alarm symptoms in primary care BMJ 2007; 334: 1013-1014 [Full text]

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Alarm symptoms in primary care

Walford Gillison   (1 June 2007)

Alarm symptoms in primary care 1 June 2007
Walford Gillison, Retired surgeon TA 22 9AT Send response to journal: Re: Alarm symptoms in primary care	Dear Editor As someone who did some basic research in oesophageal cancer on retirement in 1997, I am very much in agreement with the authors' doubts of the likelihood of oesophageal cancer being a common cause of dysphagia in adults. On retirement, I performed an audit on the disease and found the incidence of new cases being 3600 over 5 years in a population in the West Midlands of about 5 million. (Incidence about 0.0014). The authors are to be commended for their scientific content but not their grammar. The subtitle "These greatly increase the risk of cancer, but the diagnosis is still rare", is irritating. The symptoms do not increase the risk of cancer. May I suggest: Alarm symptoms are increased in patients who happen to have to have cancer, but the diagnosis is still rare? Yours sincerely, Walford Gillison FRCS Competing interests: None declared