SynthesisThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2010
Positive predictive values of ≥5% in primary care for cancer: systematic review.
Synthesis in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 122 citations in OpenAlex.
- Quality of the diagnostic process in patients presenting with symptoms suggestive of bladder or kidney cancer: a systematic review.BMJ open · 2019Pooled it
- Guideline
- Predictive values of referrals for transient ischaemic attack from first-contact health care: a systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2017Pooled it
- Systematic review of guidelines for the management of suspected lung cancer in primary care.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2014Pooled it
- Systematic review of clinical features of suspected colorectal cancer in primary care.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2014Pooled it
- Most bowel cancer symptoms do not indicate colorectal cancer and polyps: a systematic review.BMC gastroenterology · 2011Pooled it
- The diagnostic value of symptoms for colorectal cancer in primary care: a systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2011Pooled it
- Association of symptoms at diagnosis with prognosis in patients with surgically treated stage I non-small cell lung cancer: a retrospective cohort analysis of a prospectively maintained registry.Translational lung cancer research · 2026Article
- Article
- Patients' experiences of a standardized care pathway for suspected bladder cancer due to macroscopic hematuria.BMC urology · 2025Article
- Time Intervals in the Pathway to Diagnosis of Patients with Cancer.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2025Article
- The Young: Early-Onset Colon Cancer.Clinics in colon and rectal surgery · 2025Review
- Mapping intellectual structure and research hotspots of cancer studies in primary health care: A machine-learning-based analysis.Medicine · 2025Article
- Time intervals in the pathway to diagnosis and treatment of patients with breast and gynecological cancer.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Differences in the peripheral blood immune landscape between early-onset and late-onset colorectal cancer.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- The Clinical Utility of Assessing Orthostatic Intolerance in Adolescents with Sport-Related Concussion, a Retrospective Study.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- What would primary care practitioners do differently after a delayed cancer diagnosis? Learning lessons from their experiences.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2024Article
- Leveraging multi-cancer blood tests to improve diagnostic efficiency for patients with nonspecific signs and symptoms.Future oncology (London, England) · 2024Article
- Phenotypes and rates of cancer-relevant symptoms and tests in the year before cancer diagnosis in UK Biobank and CPRD Gold.PLOS digital health · 2023Article
- The Swedish Standardized Course of Care-Diagnostic Efficacy in Esophageal and Gastric Cancer.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe positive predictive value (PPV) for cancer of symptoms, signs, and non-diagnostic test results of patients routinely consulting a GP (unselected primary care populations) can help to determine when malignancy should be excluded. Comparisons with other illness indicate that a value of 5% or more may be regarded as highly predictive.
aimTo identify symptoms, signs, and non-diagnostic test results in unselected primary care populations that are highly predictive of cancer. DESIGN OF STUDY: Systematic review.
settingPrimary care.
methodFourteen bibliographic databases were searched, using terms for primary care, cancer, and predictive values. Reference lists of relevant papers were hand-searched. Data were extracted and the quality of each paper was assessed using predefined criteria, and checked by a second reviewer.
resultsTwenty-five studies were identified. PPVs of 5% or more in specific age and sex groups were reported for: rectal bleeding, change in bowel habit, and iron deficiency anaemia and colorectal cancer; haematuria and urological cancer; malignant rectal examination and prostate cancer; haemoptysis and lung cancer; dysphagia and oesophageal cancer; breast lump and breast cancer; and postmenopausal bleeding and gynaecological cancer.
conclusionRobust evidence was found for eight symptoms, signs, and non-diagnostic test results as strongly indicative of cancer for specific age and sex groups in unselected primary care populations. These have the potential to improve the early diagnosis of some cancers in primary care by the use of computer warning flags, improved guidelines, audit, and appraisal.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.