Teaching oncology and cancer care to general practice trainees in Sweden: a two-year prospective, randomized study

To improve general practice (GP) trainees' knowledge of and attitudes towards oncology and their management of cancer patients.

A prospective study of 33 GP trainees who, after a first assessment, were randomized either to attend a two-year cancer course (n = 17) or to a control group (n = 16). Both groups were tested at the beginning (pretest) and end (post-test) of the two years. The maximum possible score was 76. All tests were corrected blindly by an oncologist and a general practitioner.

The intervention group showed significant post-test-pretest improvements in the domains "knowledge" (mean difference 2.6, 95% CI 1.3-3.8) and "attitudes" (mean difference 2.9, 95% CI 0.8-5.0), but not in "patient management" (mean difference 0.3, 95% CI -0.6-1.2). There was no significant change in the test scores of the controls. The total mean (post-test-pretest) differences were 8.3 (95% CI 4.9-11.6 for the intervention group and -1.4 (95% CI -4.1-1.3) for the controls.

A low-intensity two-year cancer course improved the knowledge and attitudes of GP trainees. Patient management, however, was not improved and may be more suited for hospital training. The current five-year specific training in general practice in Sweden seemed to be of limited value in the field of oncology. Thus, there is a need for further development of educational tools for cancer training of GP trainees, at least in Sweden.