Objectives: Background: In 1999 all General Practitioners (GPs) in the UK were sent guidelines about the criteria for urgent referral of patients with suspected sarcoma. In addition, the receiving specialist centre was given a set of targets to meet in relation to referral, diagnosis and treatment of these cancers. These targets have now been updated for 2008 in the Cancer Reform strategy.

Aim: To compare the clinical information on two-week wait referrals with imaging clinical assessment within a specialist centre to confirm a malignant diagnosis; to review sarcoma diagnosis hit-rate and to establish whether early diagnosis has been improved.

Methods: All two-week wait referrals direct into our department were studied from June 2007 to June 2008 to determine whether a sarcoma was diagnosed, whether the GP criteria were met, and whether the targets were achieved.

Results: A total of 166 referrals received as two-week referrals to the specialist unit. One hundred and thirty six were diagnosed with benign lesions. Thirty patients had a malignant diagnosis and of those 10 patients had surgery as their first definitive treatment.

Conclusions: Detailed analysis is still being undertaken but initial conclusions drawn seem to suggest that there are still a large number of inappropriate referrals being made under the two week wait. This may be due to the GPs not following the criteria on the referral form.