Doctors fail to spot lung cancer

Yvonne McQuatt is trying to remain positive

A woman whose lung cancer was not detected by three different doctors and is now inoperable has called for GPs to be extra-vigilant.

Yvonne McQuatt fears her diagnosis was compromised because as a non-smoker she did not fit the usual stereotype of a lung cancer sufferer.

Mrs McQuatt, of Penicuik, in Midlothian near Edinburgh, is now being given chemotherapy as it is the only treatment option open to her.

Four doctors at her local surgery failed to diagnose the cancer - when it was diagnosed seven months after her first appointment it was inoperable.

The mother-of-three said she wants GPs to be more vigilant: "They just put me in a category and said I couldn't possibly be a candidate for lung cancer so I never got the test that would prove it.

"They shouldn't put people in categories and just give them the tests that they can."

Dr Macleod: lung cancer presents in many ways

More women now die from lung cancer than from breast cancer in a massive reversal of previous trends - breast cancer deaths have fallen by 30% in the past ten years.

But Dr Una Macleod, a cancer expert, said lung cancer can be difficult to detect.

"Breast cancer is reasonably easily diagnosed, largely because it presents with a lump, whereas lung cancer presents in lots of different ways, " she said.

"It may present with chest pain, it may present with a cough, with coughing up blood, it may present with weightloss, it may present with breathlessness and all these symptoms can mean something else."

The general practise team at Mrs McQuatt's surgery in Penicuik declined to comment on the matter.

She, however, remains positive: "Everyday I've been regaining my old Yvonne back."