Cancer symptom awareness and barriers to symptomatic presentation in England[mdash]are we clear on cancer[quest]

open access

.... Women were significantly more likely than men to both recognise common cancer symptoms and to report barriers. Women were much more likely compared with men to report that fear would put them off from going to the doctor......Women were more likely than men to recognise each cancer symptom, except ‘persistent unexplained pain’.....

..... Finally, understanding the reasons why people in our sample identified certain barriers, for example, why people worry about wasting the doctor’s time, could further improve the effectiveness of future campaigns. Our findings could contribute to improving cancer survival in England to match the best in Europe by helping to develop targeted campaigns promoting early presentation of cancer symptoms.