Center for General Practice, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
The Quality Unit for General Practice in the North Region of Denmark (Nord-KAP), Aalborg, Denmark.
BMC Cancer. 2022 May 23;22(1):574. doi: 10.1186/s12885-022-09535-y.
Non-specific symptoms are common and often sign of a non-serious disease. Because of this, patients with non-specific symptoms of cancer (NSSC) present a challenge for general practitioners (GP). Studies describing characteristics of patients with NSSC have been done after fast-track pathways were created to diagnose and treat patients with NSSC. This study reviews characteristics of patients with NSSC and their patient pathways.
Database searches of Embase, Cochrane, PubMed, Cinahl and Web of Science were performed. Search terms used were cancer, patient pathway, and NSSC with their synonyms. The flow diagram Preferring Reporting Items for Systematic Review was applied to the systematic search. The Newcastle-Ottawa Assessment Scale (NOS) was used to compare the quality of the included studies.
Twelve studies met the inclusion criterias. All studies were considered to be of high methodological quality. Patient Pathway: 11-35% of patients were diagnosed with cancer. Median number of days through diagnostic process was 7-10.
The most prevalent cancers included hematological-(14-30%), gastrointestinal-(13-23%) and lung cancers (13%). Rheumatological, musculoskeletal and gastrointestinal diseases were among the most common non-malignant diseases diagnosed. Weight loss, fatigue, pain and loss of appetite were the most common symptoms. Cardiovascular diseases, lung diseases, diabetes and previous diagnosed cancer were the most common comorbidities. Mean age of included patients was 60-72 years.
Limited number of studies were found and they lacked sufficient heterogenic data to conduct a metaanalysis. Symptoms, diagnoses, age and gender were described with some heterogenic results. Further studies should be conducted to gather broader knowledge about patients with NSSC.
非特异性症状很常见，往往是不严重疾病的迹象。因此，患有非特异性癌症症状的患者（NSSC）对全科医生（GP）提出了挑战。描述 NSSC 患者特征的研究是在创建快速通道以诊断和治疗 NSSC 患者之后进行的。本研究回顾了 NSSC 患者及其患者途径的特征。
对 Embase、Cochrane、PubMed、Cinahl 和 Web of Science 进行了数据库搜索。使用的搜索词是癌症、患者途径和 NSSC 及其同义词。系统搜索应用了首选报告项目的系统评价流程图。纽卡斯尔-渥太华评估量表（NOS）用于比较纳入研究的质量。
符合纳入标准的有 12 项研究。所有研究均被认为具有较高的方法学质量。患者途径：11-35%的患者被诊断患有癌症。诊断过程中的中位数天数为 7-10 天。
最常见的癌症包括血液系统（14-30%）、胃肠道（13-23%）和肺癌（13%）。诊断出的最常见的非恶性疾病包括风湿性、肌肉骨骼和胃肠道疾病。体重减轻、疲劳、疼痛和食欲不振是最常见的症状。心血管疾病、肺部疾病、糖尿病和以前诊断出的癌症是最常见的合并症。纳入患者的平均年龄为 60-72 岁。
研究数量有限，缺乏足够的异质性数据进行荟萃分析。描述了症状、诊断、年龄和性别，结果存在一些异质性。应开展进一步研究，以广泛了解 NSSC 患者。
