ArticleBMJ open2019
How European primary care practitioners think the timeliness of cancer diagnosis can be improved: a thematic analysis.
Article in BMJ open, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Knowledge and Clinical Practices of Primary Care Physicians Regarding Soft Tissue Sarcomas: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Changes in diagnostic evaluation of patients with lung cancer symptoms.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2025Article
- Interventions to improve timely cancer diagnosis: an integrative review.Diagnosis (Berlin, Germany) · 2025Review
- How will lung cancer screening and lung nodule management change the diagnostic and surgical lung cancer landscape?European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2024Review
- What would primary care practitioners do differently after a delayed cancer diagnosis? Learning lessons from their experiences.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2024Article
- Exploring why European primary care physicians sometimes do not think of, or act on, a possible cancer diagnosis. A qualitative study.BJGP open · 2023Article
- Priorities for implementation research on diagnosing cancer in primary care: a consensus process.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Primary care practitioners' priorities for improving the timeliness of cancer diagnosis in primary care: a European cluster-based analysis.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Pre-Referral Primary Care Blood Tests and Symptom Presentation before Cancer Diagnosis: National Cancer Diagnosis Audit Data.Cancers · 2023Article
- Article
- Healthcare Costs Before and After Diagnosis of Cancer of Unknown Primary Versus Ovarian Cancer in Australia.PharmacoEconomics - open · 2023Article
- Implementing Lung Cancer Screening in Europe: Taking a Systems Approach.JTO clinical and research reports · 2022Review
- Pluralistic task shifting for a more timely cancer diagnosis. A grounded theory study from a primary care perspective.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2021Article
- A Step towards Understanding and Tackling Health Inequalities: The Use of Secondary Prevention Services and the Need for Health Promotion in a Rural Setting.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Gap between desired and self-determined roles of general practitioners: a multicentre questionnaire study in Japan.BMC family practice · 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
24 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundNational European cancer survival rates vary widely. Prolonged diagnostic intervals are thought to be a key factor in explaining these variations. Primary care practitioners (PCPs) frequently play a crucial role during initial cancer diagnosis; their knowledge could be used to improve the planning of more effective approaches to earlier cancer diagnosis.
objectivesThis study sought the views of PCPs from across Europe on how they thought the timeliness of cancer diagnosis could be improved.
designIn an online survey, a final open-ended question asked PCPs how they thought the speed of diagnosis of cancer in primary care could be improved. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.
settingA primary care study, with participating centres in 20 European countries.
participantsA total of 1352 PCPs answered the final survey question, with a median of 48 per country.
resultsThe main themes identified were: patient-related factors, including health education; care provider-related factors, including continuing medical education; improving communication and interprofessional partnership, particularly between primary and secondary care; factors relating to health system organisation and policies, including improving access to healthcare; easier primary care access to diagnostic tests; and use of information technology. Re-allocation of funding to support timely diagnosis was seen as an issue affecting all of these.
conclusionsTo achieve more timely cancer diagnosis, health systems need to facilitate earlier patient presentation through education and better access to care, have well-educated clinicians with good access to investigations and better information technology, and adequate primary care cancer diagnostic pathway funding.
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.