Colorectal disease : the official journal of the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland
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Comparative Study
Iron-deficiency anaemia and delay in the diagnosis of colorectal cancer.
Iron-deficiency anaemia (IDA) is a recognized complication of colorectal cancer (CRC) especially with right-sided tumours, and failure to investigate the anaemia in older patients may lead to a delay in diagnosis. The aims of this study were to establish the proportion of patients with CRC shown to have an IDA for more than six months before diagnosis and to establish the proportion of patients with IDA who subsequently prove to have CRC. ⋯ The investigation of iron-deficiency anaemia in older patients is important but in order to detect 26 patients with colorectal cancer a year earlier, the investigation of approximately 5000 patients would be required--a detection rate of less than 1%.