In the UK, referral guidelines for suspected cancer have been produced by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN).

NICE guidelines

The NHS Cancer Referral Guidelines from NICE aim to help GPs and other health professionals know when to refer people to specialists if they have symptoms that could be due to a cancer. The guidelines refer to immediate referral (seen within a few hours), urgent referral (within 2 weeks) and non-urgent referral (seen under locally agreed referral systems). They include guidance on the need for information and support.

The information NICE has produced is divided into three sections:

• General information about being referred for suspected cancer.
• Adult cancers – this includes a list of symptoms with recommendations of when someone should be referred to a specialist.
• Children and young people with suspected cancer.

Details of all the guidance, is available on the NICE website at www.nice.org.uk. Click on the links below to be taken directly to the information on the NICE website:

• Cancer service guidance, published or in development.

• Referral guidelines for suspected cancer. Quick reference guide, June 2005 (PDF document).

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SIGN guidelines

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) are the Scottish equivalent of NICE and produce guidelines for Scotland. More information is on their website at: www.sign.ac.uk or click on the link below:

• SIGN cancer guidelines