Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28324922›Full record

ArticleCancer research and treatment2018

The Clinical Significance of Occult Gastrointestinal Primary Tumours in Metastatic Cancer: A Population Retrospective Cohort Study.

Malek B Hannouf, Eric Winquist, Salaheddin M Mahmud, Muriel Brackstone, Sisira Sarma, George Rodrigues, Peter K Rogan, Jeffrey S Hoch, Gregory S Zaric

Open access · diamondAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Cancer research and treatment, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
0.2field-weighted citation impact, top 43% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.

Malek B HannoufDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
Eric WinquistDepartment of Oncology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
Salaheddin M MahmudDepartment of Community Health Sciences, College of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
Muriel BrackstoneDepartment of Oncology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
Sisira SarmaDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
George RodriguesDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
Peter K RoganDepartment of Biochemistry, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
Jeffrey S HochInstitute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Gregory S ZaricDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
Western University · CACancer Care Ontario · CAUniversity of Manitoba · CAUniversity of Toronto · CA

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeThe purpose of this study was to estimate the incidence of occult gastrointestinal (GI) primary tumours in patients with metastatic cancer of uncertain primary origin and evaluate their influence on treatments and overall survival (OS). MATERIALS AND

methodsWe used population heath data from Manitoba, Canada to identify all patients initially diagnosed with metastatic cancer between 2002 and 2011. We defined patients to have "occult" primary tumour if the primary was found at least 6 months after initial diagnosis. Otherwise, we considered primary tumours as "obvious." We used propensity-score methods to match each patient with occult GI tumour to four patients with obvious GI tumour on all known clinicopathologic features. We compared treatments and 2-year survival data between the two patient groups and assessed treatment effect on OS using Cox regression adjustment.

resultsEighty-three patients had occult GI primary tumours, accounting for 17.6% of men and 14% of women with metastatic cancer of uncertain primary. A 1:4 matching created a matched group of 332 patients with obvious GI primary tumour. Occult cases compared to the matched group were less likely to receive surgical interventions and targeted biological therapy, and more likely to receive cytotoxic empiric chemotherapeutic agents. Having an occult GI tumour was associated with reduced OS and appeared to be a nonsignificant independent predictor of OS when adjusting for treatment differences.

conclusionGI tumours are the most common occult primary tumours in men and the second most common in women. Patients with occult GI primary tumours are potentially being undertreated with available GI site-specific and targeted therapies.

Indexed as

Cohort StudiesFemaleGastrointestinal NeoplasmsHumansIncidenceMaleManitobaMiddle AgedNeoplasm MetastasisRetrospective StudiesSurvival AnalysisCohort studiesGastrointestinal neoplasmsInformation storage and retrievalNeoplasm metastasisPropensity scoreResearch designUnknown primary neoplasms

Identifiers

PMID28324922
PMCPMC5784645
OpenAlexW2601583029

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.