Updated 30 January 2012
When first seen at a BC Cancer facility, patients expect that the relevant reports will be available to the oncologist so that an appropriate disposition can be made without unnecessary delay.
New patient referral
To facilitate this, the nurse or clerk in the Admitting Department taking the initial referral will establish available information from a checklist (see Referral Information: Reports required by the Admitting Department: Genitourinary) developed by the tumour group for each site. It is recognized that this information may already have been sent to BC Cancer (attention Admitting Department), or that individual tests may not be appropriate in specific instances.
Referral of urgent cases such as testis cancer or muscle-invasive bladder cancer should not be delayed whilst staging is done. A telephone call to an oncologist may assist with rapid patient disposition. This list is provided for the assistance of referring physicians and their office staff.
All recent consultations and operative, pathology, imaging and relevant lab reports, and similar reports related to previous episodes of cancer for patients referred at relapse or with a second malignancy, are required. Information regarding previous non-surgical cancer therapy is also very valuable and difficult to obtain. For more complex cases, a referring letter would be greatly appreciated.
Patients who have been returned to their community and are no longer followed at BC Cancer may be referred back by contacting the patient's BC Cancer oncologist, who can usually be identified from prior correspondence (also each chart indicates a "doctor-in-charge" by tumour site). Second genitourinary primaries may be handled similarly. New primaries of non-GU sites are usually managed as for new referrals.
Patients may also be referred to traveling clinics under the Communities Oncology Program. However it should be appreciated that this may lead to delay where a subspecialty opinion or treatment at a cancer centre is required.
