Some people may avoid going to their GP with warning symptoms of cancer because they are afraid of wasting their doctor's time, a new study has found.

Others are afraid that they will be diagnosed with the disease or they simply blame their symptoms on somthing else, such as ageing.

The UK study looked at over 1,700 people aged 50 and older who were attending three different GP practices.

All filled in a survey that provided details about 17 symptoms. While cancer was not mentioned, some of the symptoms would be considered warning signs for the disease, such as an unexplained lump or persistent changes in bowel habits.

Over 900 of the participants said that they had at least one cancer warning symptom during the last three months. Almost 50 of these then underwent indepth interviews. Of these, nearly half admitted that they had not seen their GP about their symptoms.

"Many of the people we interviewed had red flag symptoms but felt that these were trivial and didn't need medical attention, particularly if they were painless or intermittent. Others felt that they shouldn't make a fuss or waste valuable resources. The stiff-upper-lip stoicism of some who decided not to go to their doctor was alarming because they put up with often debilitating symptoms," commented Dr Katriina Whitaker of University College London.

She noted that some people only made the decision to have their symptoms checked after being encouraged to do so by family members or after seeing a cancer awareness campaign. She said this ‘seemed to almost legitimise their symptoms as important'.

People who had sought help said they had done so for different reasons, including symptoms not going away or an instinct that something was just not right.

However some people used the same excuses not to visit their GP. They were concerned about having the symptoms checked for fear of what they might find and as they lived with the symptoms, they began to think they were normal.

In some cases, patients waited until they were attending their GP for another reason, but then mentioned the warning sign during the consultation.

The researchers urged people to always check symptoms out and emphasised that this is not wasting a GP's time.

Details of these findings are published in the British Journal of General Practice.