ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2017
Clinical relevance of thrombocytosis in primary care: a prospective cohort study of cancer incidence using English electronic medical records and cancer registry data.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 79 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
79 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 133 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of ColonFlag as a Complete Blood Count-Based Machine Learning Algorithm for Early Detection of Colorectal Cancer: A Systematic Review.Iranian journal of medical sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Genetic variants associated with platelet count are predictive of human disease and physiological markers.Communications biology · 2021Pooled it
- Implementation of a Quality Improvement and Clinical Decision Support Tool for Cancer Diagnosis in Primary Care: Process Evaluation.JMIR cancer · 2025Trial
- Thromboxane biosynthesis in cancer patients and its inhibition by aspirin: a sub-study of the Add-Aspirin trial.British journal of cancer · 2023Trial
- Liquid biopsy in bladder cancer: towards precision oncology.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- What potential cancer symptoms should we consider 'unexplained'?The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Article
- Avatrombopag switching from other thrombopoietic agents in severe and persistent cancer treatment-induced thrombocytopenia: a multicentre real-world study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- U-shaped prognostic signature: baseline platelet count and morphological parameters predict ovarian cancer outcomes in a 265-patient cohort.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- Tumor-mediated remote regulation of peripheral blood platelets.Cell biology and toxicology · 2025Review
- Prognostic value of thrombocytosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma in the era of intensity-modulated radiotherapy.BMC cancer · 2025Article
- Diagnostic testing patterns for lung cancer-related symptoms in primary care: a retrospective cohort study.BMJ open respiratory research · 2025Article
- Article
- Network Controllability Reveals Key Mitigation Points for Tumor-Promoting Signaling in Tumor-Educated Platelets.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- The role of platelets in cancer: from their influence on tumor progression to their potential use in liquid biopsy.Biomarker research · 2025Review
- Liquid biopsy in cancer current: status, challenges and future prospects.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2024Review
- A scoping review of unexpected weight loss and cancer: risk, guidelines, and recommendations for follow-up in primary care.BJGP open · 2024Article
- Prioritising primary care patients with unexpected weight loss for cancer investigation: diagnostic accuracy study (update).BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2024Article
- Compound K Promotes Megakaryocytic Differentiation by NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation.Biomolecules · 2024Article
- Article
19 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
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- Erratum issuedCorrections.2021
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThrombocytosis (raised platelet count) is an emerging risk marker of cancer, but the association has not been fully explored in a primary care context.
aimTo examine the incidence of cancer in a cohort of patients with thrombocytosis, to determine how clinically useful this risk marker could be in predicting an underlying malignancy. DESIGN AND
settingA prospective cohort study using Clinical Practice Research Datalink data from 2000 to 2013.
methodThe 1-year incidence of cancer was compared between two cohorts: 40 000 patients aged ≥40 years with a platelet count of >400 × 10
resultsA total of 1098 out of 9435 males with thrombocytosis were diagnosed with cancer (11.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 11.0 to 12.3), compared with 106 of 2599 males without thrombocytosis (4.1%; 95% CI = 3.4 to 4.9). A total of 1355 out of 21 826 females with thrombocytosis developed cancer (6.2%; 95% CI = 5.9 to 6.5), compared with 119 of 5370 females without (2.2%; 95% CI = 1.8 to 2.6). The risk of cancer increased to 18.1% (95% CI = 15.9 to 20.5) for males and 10.1% (95% CI = 9.0 to 11.3) for females, when a second raised platelet count was recorded within 6 months. Lung and colorectal cancer were more commonly diagnosed with thrombocytosis. One-third of patients with thrombocytosis and lung or colorectal cancer had no other symptoms indicative of malignancy.
conclusionThrombocytosis is a risk marker of cancer in adults; 11.6% and 6.2% cancer incidence in males and females, respectively, is worthy of further investigation for underlying malignancy. These figures well exceed the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence-mandated risk threshold of 3% risk to warrant referral for suspected cancer.
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