Institution of a two-week wait brain/CNS ‘cancer exclusion’ imaging pathway

Abstract

Background: NICE guidelines (NG12) recommend that clinicians should ‘consider an urgent, direct access, MRI scan of the brain (or CT scan if MRI is contraindicated; to be done within 2 weeks) to assess for brain or central nervous system cancer in adults with progressive, sub-acute loss of central neurological function’. It was found at our institution that, due to delays encountered when referring patients to the existing neurology two-week wait (2WW) pathway, only 54% of patients with suspected cancer from primary care were scanned within two weeks.