RE: Two-week rule: suspected head and neck cancer referrals from a general medical practice perspective

I read with interest the article by Talwar et al entitled “Two-week rule: suspected head and neck cancer referrals from a general medical practice perspective”1. The authors make an interesting finding of a 5.5% conversion rate from 2 week wait referral to malignant diagnosis. Clearly there is a difficult balance between early diagnosis and appropriate use of resources. It should be noted that The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines for the recognition and referral of cancer currently have a set “risk threshold” of 3%2.
Source: The British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery - Category: ENT & OMF Authors: Tags: Letter to the Editor Source Type: research