Bowel cancer patients ‘not being referred for liver surgery’

UK bowel cancer patients are not being referred to specialists for potentially life-saving liver surgery often enough, according to a new study.

The Cancer Research UK-led study examined the treatment of more than 600 patients with bowel cancer that had spread to the liver in the Yorkshire area, in order to assess how many were being referred to liver specialists.

It was found that on average, only one-fifth of patients received referrals, with rates varying wildly between the seven hospitals in the area, ranging from 43 percent in some facilities to 13 percent in others.

Moreover, it was revealed that liver specialists disagreed in 44 percent of cases in which bowel specialists had decided patients should not undergo a liver operation despite being fit for surgery.

Alastair Young, study author and surgical registrar based at St James's University Hospital, said: "Liver and bowel specialists need to talk to each other much more to ensure every patient has the best possible chance of beating the disease and to reduce the worrying difference in referral rates."

In 2009, there were 41,142 new cases of bowel cancer registered in the UK, making it the third most common cancer type.