ArticleCancer medicine2017
General practice consultations, diagnostic investigations, and prescriptions in the year preceding a lung cancer diagnosis.
Article in Cancer medicine, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Prediagnostic prescription patterns in pancreatic cancer: a retrospective primary care cohort study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Prediagnostic primary care consultations and imaging in emergency-diagnosed versus referred patients with lung cancer: a population-based linked data study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Diagnostic testing patterns for lung cancer-related symptoms in primary care: a retrospective cohort study.BMJ open respiratory research · 2025Article
- Changes in diagnostic evaluation of patients with lung cancer symptoms.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2025Article
- How do health literacy and chronic disease influence the diagnostic evaluation of patients with lung cancer symptoms?Acta oncologica (Stockholm, Sweden) · 2025Article
- A UK population-based case-control study of blood tests before cancer diagnosis in patients with non-specific abdominal symptoms.British journal of cancer · 2025Article
- Achieving earlier diagnosis of symptomatic lung cancer.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- Clinical activity in general practice before sarcoma diagnosis: an Australian cohort study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Article
- Trends in primary care blood tests prior to lung and colorectal cancer diagnosis-A retrospective cohort study using linked Australian data.Cancer medicine · 2024Article
- Article
- Does changing healthcare use signal opportunities for earlier detection of cancer? A review of studies using information from electronic patient records.Cancer epidemiology · 2022Review
- Associations between general practice characteristics and chest X-ray rate: an observational study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2022Observational
- Article
- Opportunities for reducing emergency diagnoses of colon cancer in women and men: A data-linkage study on pre-diagnostic symptomatic presentations and benign diagnoses.European journal of cancer care · 2019Article
- Use of Healthcare Services Two Years before Diagnosis in Danish Sarcoma Patients, 2000-2013.Sarcoma · 2019Article
- Electronic patient records research to aid diagnostic reasoning for possible cancer in primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2018Article
- Cohort profile: prescriptions dispensed in the community linked to the national cancer registry in England.BMJ open · 2018Article
- Clinical features of patients with non-metastatic lung cancer in primary care: a case-control study.BJGP open · 2018Article
- Health care use before a diagnosis of primary intracranial tumor: a Danish nationwide register study.Clinical epidemiology · 2018Article
- General practice consultations, diagnostic investigations, and prescriptions in the year preceding a lung cancer diagnosis.Cancer medicine · 2017Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
Patterns of general practice utilization in the period before lung cancer (LC) diagnosis may provide new knowledge to ensure timelier and earlier diagnosis of LC. This study aimed to explore the prediagnostic activity in general practice in the year preceding LC diagnosis. The activity was compared to a matched comparison group. We compared LC patients with different stage, and patients with and without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Using Danish registers, we performed a population-based matched cohort study including lung cancer patients (n = 34,017) and matched comparison subjects (n = 340,170). During months 12 to 1 prior to diagnosis, 92.6% of LC patients and 88.4% of comparison subjects had one or more contacts with general practice. 13.0% of LC patients and 3.3% of comparison subjects had two or more X-rays. 20.8% of LC patients and 8.5% of comparison subjects had two or more first-time antibiotics prescriptions. The incidence rate ratio for having a contact to general practice was similar for LC patients with localized disease compared to LC patients with metastatic disease. LC patients with COPD had more frequent contacts, lung functions tests, X-rays, and prescriptions than COPD patients without lung cancer, but not as pronounced as compared to patients without COPD. There was a significant increase in healthcare seeking and diagnostic activity in the year prior to a LC diagnosis, regardless of stage at diagnosis. COPD may mask the symptoms of LC. This indicates the presence of a "diagnostic time window" and a potential for more timely diagnosis of LC based on clinical signs and symptoms.
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