ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2022
Identifying opportunities for timely diagnosis of bladder and renal cancer via abnormal blood tests: a longitudinal linked data study.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04166240 (Measuring and Improving the Safety of Test Result Follow-Up), which is not on this map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
Measuring and Improving the Safety of Test Result Follow-Up
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prognostic value of NLR versus PLR and LMR in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma: a meta-analysis.BMC oral health · 2026Pooled it
- Prediagnostic prescription patterns in pancreatic cancer: a retrospective primary care cohort study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Diagnostic Value of the Combined Detection of Microbiota, Multiple Inflammation-Related Indicators, Serum Lipid Indices, and Tumour Markers in Colorectal Polyps: A Case-Control Study.International journal of medical sciences · 2025Article
- Relationship between immunohistochemical markers and clinical pathological variables in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- Understanding symptom contribution to sex inequality in bladder and renal cancer stage at diagnosis.BJUI compass · 2024Article
- The Clinical Value of Pre-Diagnostic Thrombocytosis for the Detection of Lung Cancer in Primary Care.Cancers · 2024Article
- Identification of phenomic data in the pathogenesis of cancers of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract in the UK biobank.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- A taxonomy of early diagnosis research to guide study design and funding prioritisation.British journal of cancer · 2023Review
- Diagnosis, treatment and survival from bladder, upper urinary tract, and urethral cancers: real-world findings from NHS England between 2013 and 2019.BJU international · 2023Article
- Symptoms and signs of urogenital cancer in primary care.BMC primary care · 2023Article
- Pre-diagnostic prognostic value of leukocytes count and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in patients who develop colorectal cancer.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundUnderstanding pre-diagnostic test use could reveal diagnostic windows where more timely evaluation for cancer may be indicated.
aimTo examine pre-diagnostic patterns of results of abnormal blood tests in patients with bladder and renal cancer. DESIGN AND
settingA retrospective cohort study using primary care and cancer registry data on patients with bladder and renal cancer who were diagnosed between April 2012 and December 2015 in England.
methodThe rates of patients with a first abnormal result in the year before cancer diagnosis, for 'generic' (full blood count components, inflammatory markers, and calcium) and 'organ-specific' blood tests (creatinine and liver function test components) that may lead to subsequent detection of incidental cancers, were examined. Poisson regression was used to detect the month during which the cohort's rate of each abnormal test started to increase from baseline. The proportion of patients with a test found in the first half of the diagnostic window was examined, as these 'early' tests might represent opportunities where further evaluation could be initiated.
resultsData from 4533 patients with bladder and renal cancer were analysed. The monthly rate of patients with a first abnormal test increased towards the time of cancer diagnosis. Abnormalities of both generic (for example, high inflammatory markers) and organ-specific tests (for example, high creatinine) started to increase from 6-8 months pre-diagnosis, with 25%-40% of these patients having an abnormal test in the 'early half' of the diagnostic window.
conclusionPopulation-level signals of bladder and renal cancer can be observed in abnormalities in commonly performed primary care blood tests up to 8 months before diagnosis, indicating the potential for earlier diagnosis in some patients.
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