"Just a Cough and a Sore Throat"

In the next preceding post, I mention the Listerine connection to my friend's throat cancer, but there's one more thing. He had a cough and a sore throat for months before he went to an ENT. He had gone to his GP about it, and I do not understand why it took the GP so long to refer him. Persistent cough should be enough to bore into the problem. But that plus a sore throat? Now the tumor is too large to remove by surgery and it must be burned away with radiation. This is not a good story.