ArticleBJGP open2024
Patients from general practice with non-specific cancer symptoms: a retrospective study of symptoms and imaging.
Article in BJGP open, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 2 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
- Molecular Cancer Signal Localization in MCED Testing Minimizes Radiation and Imaging Burden Compared with Whole-body Imaging Approaches.Cancer prevention research (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2026Article
- Bioactive potency of extracts fromBiomedical reports · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPatients with non-specific symptoms or signs of cancer (NSSC) present a challenge as they are a heterogeneous population who are not candidates for fast-track work-up in an organ-specific cancer pre-planned pathway (CPP). Denmark has a cancer pre-planned pathway for this population (NSSC-CPP), but several issues remain unclarified, for example, distribution and significance of symptoms and findings, and choice of imaging.
aimTo investigate symptoms, cancer diagnoses, and diagnostic yield of computed tomography (CT) and fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography ( DESIGN &
settingA retrospective medical chart review in a 1-year consecutive cohort (2020).
methodA total of 802 referrals were reviewed for diagnostic imaging in patients with NSSP from general practices, specialist practices, or the local hospital diagnostic centre responsible for NSSC-CPP.
resultsThe study included 248 patients; 21% had cancer, most frequently gastrointestinal cancer (27%). The most frequent symptom was weight loss (56%). CT had a sensitivity of 85%, specificity of 87%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 65%, and negative predictive value (NPV) of 96%. For
conclusionThe findings were in accordance with the literature. Patients with NSSC had a cancer prevalence of 21%, most frequently gastrointestinal. The most frequent symptom was weight loss and, even as the only symptom, it is a potential marker for cancer. CT and
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