The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
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Growing evidence for the role of GPs' gut feelings in cancer diagnosis raises questions about their origin and role in clinical practice. ⋯ GPs' gut feelings for cancer were conceptualised as a rapid summing up of multiple verbal and non-verbal patient cues in the context of the GPs' clinical knowledge and experience. Triggers of gut feelings not included in referral guidance deserve further investigation as predictors of cancer. Non-verbal cues that trigger gut feelings appear to be reliant on continuity of care and clinical experience; they tend to remain poorly recorded and are, therefore, inaccessible to researchers.