According to a forecast shared by Professor Mike Richards, the Department of Health's National Cancer Director, within five years, each family doctor would be making the most of a tailored computer program to study a patient's risk of cancer.

The tool, according to the Professor, would help GPs determine the seriousness of the disease, and whether or not a patient requires urgent tests. He also stressed that the program could end up saving many lives by helping doctors make a diagnosis of cancer while it is still in its early stages.

Professor Richards shared that the diagnostic tool could lead to "better decision-making by GPs", but family doctors would still be the final judges of whether the patient should be referred.

"The benefit of this will be that GPs will know who should be investigated and who shouldn't. It will also help patients to know that whether they are being reassured, or referred, or getting a test, that is the right thing to do", said Professor Richards.

The risks involved would be assessed by the computer by taking into a account factors like age and weight of the patients, in addition to symptoms like rectal bleeding or constant fatigue.