ArticleBritish journal of cancer2021
Individual inflammatory marker abnormalities or inflammatory marker scores to identify primary care patients with unexpected weight loss for cancer investigation?
Article in British journal of cancer, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- Clinical Decision Support Tool for Early Pancreatic Cancer Detection in Primary Care: Simulation Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- A scoping review of unexpected weight loss and cancer: risk, guidelines, and recommendations for follow-up in primary care.BJGP open · 2024Article
- Article
- Trends in primary care blood tests prior to lung and colorectal cancer diagnosis-A retrospective cohort study using linked Australian data.Cancer medicine · 2024Article
- The Association between Blood Test Trends and Undiagnosed Cancer: A Systematic Review and Critical Appraisal.Cancers · 2024Review
- A taxonomy of early diagnosis research to guide study design and funding prioritisation.British journal of cancer · 2023Review
- Association of Weight Loss in Ambulatory Care Settings With First Diagnosis of Lung Cancer in the US.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Measured weight loss as a precursor to cancer diagnosis: retrospective cohort analysis of 43 302 primary care patients.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2022Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCombinations of inflammatory markers are used as prognostic scores in cancer patients with cachexia. We investigated whether they could also be used to prioritise patients attending primary care with unexpected weight loss for cancer investigation.
methodsWe used English primary care electronic health records data linked to cancer registry data from 12,024 patients with coded unexpected weight loss. For each individual inflammatory marker and score we estimated the sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, positive predictive value (PPV) and the area under the curve along with 95% confidence intervals for a cancer diagnosis within six months.
resultsThe risk of cancer associated with two abnormal inflammatory markers combined in a score was higher than the risk associated with individual inflammatory marker abnormalities. However, the risk of cancer in weight loss associated with individual abnormalities, notably a raised C-reactive protein, was sufficient to trigger further investigation for cancer under current NICE guidelines.
conclusionsIf scores including pairs of inflammatory marker abnormalities were to be used, in preference to individual abnormalities, fewer people would be investigated to diagnose one cancer with fewer false positives, but fewer people with cancer would be diagnosed overall.
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Registered trials
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