Usher-Smith et al report a useful study in the potential utility of cancer risk assessment tools in general practice.1 Readers may be interested to know that the www.qcancer.org tool, which calculates risk of a current but as yet undiagnosed cancer, was integrated into EMISWeb in 2016; the most popular GP computer system, used by over 55% of all GPs in the UK.
Also there is a new tool that predicts 10-year risk of different types of cancer, taking account of family history and lifestyle as well as other risk factors that are readily available.2 There is an online calculator for women (http://qcancer.org/10yr/female/) and one for men (http://qcancer.org/10yr/male/).
Competing interests
Julia Hippisley-Cox is Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham and co-director of QResearch®, a not-for-profit organisation that is a joint partnership between the University of Nottingham and Egton Medical Information Systems (leading commercial supplier of IT for 60% of general practices in the UK). Julia Hippisley-Cox is also a paid director of ClinRisk Ltd, which produces open- and closed-source software to ensure the reliable and updatable implementation of clinical risk algorithms within clinical computer systems to help improve patient care.
REFERENCES
- 1.Usher-Smith JA, Silarova B, Ward A, et al. Incorporating cancer risk information into general practice: a qualitative study using focus groups with health professionals. Br J Gen Pract. 2017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X689401. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed]
- 2.Hippisley-Cox J, Coupland C. Development and validation of risk prediction algorithms to estimate future risk of common cancers in men and women: prospective cohort study. BMJ Open. 2015;5(3):e007825. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-007825. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]