Nonspecific Signs and/or Symptoms of Cancer: A Retrospective, Observational Analysis from a Secondary Care, US Community Oncology Dataset
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curroncol-31-00268-v2.pdf
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b4207cb69b2d905d55806fea2ceb4188
Author(s)
Benton, Christopher B.
He, Ding
Todoroff, Karen
Coignet, Marie V.
Luan, Ying
Wong, Jason C.
Kurtzman, Kathryn N.
Zackon, Ira
Date Issued
June 25, 2024
Journal
Current Oncology
Publisher
MDPI AG
Citation
Benton, C.B.; He, D.; Todoroff, K.; Coignet, M.V.; Luan, Y.; Wong, J.C.; Kurtzman, K.N.; Zackon, I. Nonspecific Signs and/or Symptoms of Cancer: A Retrospective, Observational Analysis from a Secondary Care, US Community Oncology Dataset. Curr. Oncol. 2024, 31, 3643-3656.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
To help determine the unmet need for improved diagnostic tools to evaluate patients with nonspecific signs and/or symptoms (NSSS) and suspicion of cancer, we examined patient characteristics, diagnostic journey, and cancer incidence of patients with NSSS within The US Oncology Network (The Network), a secondary care community oncology setting. This retrospective, observational cohort study included patients aged ≥40 years with ≥1 NSSS in their problem list at their first visit within The Network (the index date) between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2020. Patients were followed longitudinally with electronic health record data for initial cancer diagnosis, new noncancer diagnosis, death, end of study observation period, or 12 months, whichever occurred first. Of 103,984 patients eligible for inclusion, 96,722 presented with only 1 NSSS at index date; 6537/103,984 (6.3%) were diagnosed with 1 primary cancer within 12 months after the index date; 3825/6537 (58.5%) with hematologic malignancy, and 2712/6537 (41.5%) with solid tumor. Among patients diagnosed with cancer (n = 6774), the median time to cancer diagnosis after their first visit within The Network was 5.13 weeks. This study provides a real-world perspective on cancer incidence in patients with NSSS referred to a secondary care setting and highlights the unmet need for improved diagnostic tools to improve cancer outcomes.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol31070268
