Measures of promptness of cancer diagnosis in primary care: secondary analysis of national audit data on patients with 18 common and rarer cancers

Evidence is needed about the promptness of cancer diagnosis and associations between its measures. We analysed data from the National Audit of Cancer Diagnosis in Primary Care 2009–10 exploring the association between the interval from first symptomatic presentation to specialist referral (the primary care interval, or ‘interval’ hereafter) and the number of pre-referral consultations. Among 13 035 patients with any of 18 different cancers, most...