GP survey of the primary care management of patients with neuroendocrine tumours

Introduction NETs are rare and GPs may not consider this diagnosis in patients with non-specific symptoms. We examined the current primary-care knowledge, to assess the need for GP-directed education. Method A questionnaire was sent to GPs of all consecutive patients referred to a ENETs Centre of Excellence (Jan-Feb 2015). Results Of 128 GPs included, 64 (50%) responded; most (66%) were in practice for >10 years (with 16% and 18% for 6-10 and 0-5 years, respectively). For 29% of GPs the index case was their only NET patient; however, the majority (63%) had been involved with 2-4 NET patients (in addition, 8% had ≥5 NET patients). Prior to diagnosis 44% of patients attended their GP on 1-3 occasions, 19% attended ≥4 times; most (36%) were referred to out-patient clinics, 19% were hospitalised and 28% had further GP-directed investigations. GP confidence in recognising symptoms, initiating investigations and organising ongoing-care was “not at all/only slightly confident” in 68% while 32% were “quite/very confident”. Information on the NET diagnosis received from secondary/tertiary care was reported as “helpful” by 87% of GPs. However, 84% reported no access to patient information leaflets from the NET patient support groups; 68% of GPs would welcome additional training. Although 75% of patients (n=44) were coded as NET in the practice, a range of 23 codes were used. Conclusions Due to the increasing prevalence of NETS, there is a need and willingness for GP-directed education; additional focus is also required with respect to coding and access to NET-specific information.