Is the two week rule of any benefit to patients with oral cancer?

In the UK the government introduced the ‘two week rule’ for head and neck cancer in December 2000, which sought to guarantee that any patient with suspected cancer would be seen by a specialist within 2 weeks of being referred. Our aim was to find out whether referral under the ‘two week rule’ resulted in patients being given an appointment and starting treatment faster than those who had been referred urgently directly to a consultant surgeon. A retrospective review of case notes of all patients diagnosed with oral cancer over a six-month period showed that only 3 of 22 were referred under the ‘two week rule’. A total of 48 referrals under the ‘two week rule’ were recorded during the same period. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of time waiting for an outpatient appointment and time spent waiting for treatment.