SynthesisBMC family practice2018
The diagnostic test accuracy of rectal examination for prostate cancer diagnosis in symptomatic patients: a systematic review.
Synthesis in BMC family practice, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
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
27 citing papers in PubMed, 63 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer: A Comparative Evaluation of Biological Techniques.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Integrative analysis of urinary microRNAs for prostate cancer detection: A proof-of-concept study.Translational oncology · 2026Article
- Prostate Cancer Among Patients Presenting with Obstructive Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms at a Tertiary Hospital in South Western Uganda.Research and reports in urology · 2025Article
- Incidental prostate cancer status in two tertiary centers in Kigali, Rwanda: insights from a retrospective review.The Pan African medical journal · 2025Article
- Prostate-specific antigen, digital rectal examination, and prostate cancer detection: A study based on more than 7000 transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsies in Ghana.Translational oncology · 2025Article
- Early economic evaluation of magnetic resonance imaging for prostate cancer detection in primary care.BJUI compass · 2024Article
- Prostate cancer diagnosis based on multi-parametric MRI, clinical and pathological factors using deep learning.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Diagnosing Dyssynergic Defecation with the Digital Rectal Exam: The New Digital Revolution?Digestive diseases and sciences · 2024Article
- Is the digital rectal exam any good as a prostate cancer screening test?The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Article
- Do we need MRI in all biopsy naïve patients? A multicenter cohort analysis.World journal of urology · 2024Article
- Prioritizing precision: detection of prostate cancer using mri guided fusion needle biopsy across the pennsylvania urologic regional collaborative.American journal of clinical and experimental urology · 2024Article
- The Severity of Pain in Prostate Biopsy Depends on the Biopsy Sector.Journal of personalized medicine · 2023Article
- Combining prostate health index and multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging may better predict extraprostatic extension after radical prostatectomy.Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA · 2023Article
- Urinary extracellular vesicles miRNA-A new era of prostate cancer biomarkers.Frontiers in genetics · 2023Review
- The Impact of Lifestyle on Prostate Cancer: A Road to the Discovery of New Biomarkers.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Review
- Current Value of Biparametric Prostate MRI with Machine-Learning or Deep-Learning in the Detection, Grading, and Characterization of Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Rare Presentation ofJournal of medical cases · 2022Article
- Review
- Diagnosis of advanced prostate cancer at the community level in Rwanda.International urology and nephrology · 2021Observational
- Metabolic syndrome is associated with prostate enlargement: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression on patients with lower urinary tract symptom factors.Therapeutic advances in endocrinology and metabolism · 2021Article
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 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundProstate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. NICE guidelines on recognition and referral of suspected cancer, recommend performing digital rectal examination (DRE) on patients with urinary symptoms and urgently referring if the prostate feels malignant. However, this is based on the results of one case control study, so it is not known if DRE performed in primary care is an accurate method of detecting prostate cancer.
methodsThe aim of this review is to ascertain the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of DRE for the detection of prostate cancer in symptomatic patients in primary care. CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL databases were searched in august 2015 for studies in which a DRE was performed in primary care on symptomatic patients and compared against a reference diagnostic procedure.
resultsFour studies were included with a total of 3225 patients. The sensitivity and specificity for DRE as a predictor of prostate cancer in symptomatic patients was 28.6 and 90.7%, respectively. The positive and negative predictive values were 42.3 and 84.2%, respectively.
conclusionThis review found that DRE performed in general practice is accurate, and supports the UK NICE guidelines that patients with a malignant prostate on examination are referred urgently for suspected prostate cancer. Abnormal DRE carried a 42.3% chance of malignancy, above the 3% risk threshold which NICE guidance suggests warrants an urgent referral. However this review questions the benefit of performing a DRE in primary care in the first instance, suggesting that a patient's risk of prostate cancer based on symptoms alone would warrant urgent referral even if the DRE feels normal.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.