ReviewNeoplasia (New York, N.Y.)2018
Symptom Signatures and Diagnostic Timeliness in Cancer Patients: A Review of Current Evidence.
Review in Neoplasia (New York, N.Y.), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 111 papers, 10 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
111 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 165 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cancer Risk Prediction Using Machine Learning for Supporting Early Cancer Diagnosis in Symptomatic Patients: A Systematic Review of Model Types.Cancer medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Primary Care Referral Delays in Oral Cancer Diagnosis: A Meta-Analysis.Oral diseases · 2025Pooled it
- The Impact of Travel Distance on Cancer Stage at Diagnosis for Cancer: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Pooled it
- Clinical profile, histopathology, and management of caruncular lesions; a systematic review.Eye (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- A systematic review of interventions to recognise, refer and diagnose patients with lung cancer symptoms.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2022Pooled it
- The patient, diagnostic, and treatment intervals in adult patients with cancer from high- and lower-income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Promoting lung cancer awareness, help-seeking and early detection: a systematic review of interventions.Health promotion international · 2021Pooled it
- Psychosocial influences on help-seeking behaviour for cancer in low-income and lower middle-income countries: a mixed-methods systematic review.BMJ global health · 2021Pooled it
- Patient and carer perceived barriers to early presentation and diagnosis of lung cancer: a systematic review.BMC cancer · 2019Pooled it
- Direct access cancer testing in primary care: a systematic review of use and clinical outcomes.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2018Pooled it
- Implementation of a Quality Improvement and Clinical Decision Support Tool for Cancer Diagnosis in Primary Care: Process Evaluation.JMIR cancer · 2025Trial
- Emergency diagnosis of multiple myeloma: a SEER-Medicare study.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2026Article
- Blood test trend versus single threshold abnormality to discriminate cancer from non-cancer in patients with unexpected weight loss: A retrospective cohort study.PLoS medicine · 2026Article
- Positive Predictive Value of Symptoms for Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2026Article
- Diagnostic pathways for lung cancer patients in Denmark: General practice events, first referral and stage at diagnosis.Acta oncologica (Stockholm, Sweden) · 2026Article
- Lung cancer care pathways and journeys: insights from patients at the National Cancer Institute in Mexico.BMC global and public health · 2026Article
- Multimodal parameters for the diagnosis of putative primaries of cancer of unknown primary.iScience · 2026Article
- Variations in the investigation of colorectal cancer-related symptoms in Australian primary care: a retrospective cohort study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Willingness to Share Internet Use Data for Research on Early Disease Detection: Cross-Sectional Survey.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Emergency cancer diagnosis in older adults: patterns, subgroups, and implications for health-care quality metrics.JNCI cancer spectrum · 2026Article
51 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Early diagnosis is an important aspect of contemporary cancer prevention and control strategies, as the majority of patients are diagnosed following symptomatic presentation. The nature of presenting symptoms can critically influence the length of the diagnostic intervals from symptom onset to presentation (the patient interval), and from first presentation to specialist referral (the primary care interval). Understanding which symptoms are associated with longer diagnostic intervals to help the targeting of early diagnosis initiatives is an area of emerging research. In this Review, we consider the methodological challenges in studying the presenting symptoms and intervals to diagnosis of cancer patients, and summarize current evidence on presenting symptoms associated with a range of common and rarer cancer sites. We propose a taxonomy of cancer sites considering their symptom signature and the predictive value of common presenting symptoms. Finally, we consider evidence on associations between symptomatic presentations and intervals to diagnosis before discussing implications for the design, implementation, and evaluation of public health or health system interventions to achieve the earlier detection of cancer.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.