TY - JOUR

T1 - Blood sampling patterns in primary care change several years before a cancer diagnosis

AU - Christensen, Mathilde Egelund

AU - Grand, Mia Klinten

AU - Kriegbaum, Margit

AU - Lind, Bent Struer

AU - Grønbæk, Kirsten

AU - Persson, Frederik

AU - Johansen, Christoffer

AU - Andersen, Christen Lykkegaard

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - A sudden increase in blood sample requisitions from primary care physicians may indicate an incentive to investigate cer-tain symptoms further. Patients with slowly progressing malig-nancies may debut with insidious symptoms and seek medical attention with increasing frequency, which indeed has been demonstrated through different markers of primary care activ-ity in the last 1–2 years prior to a cancer diagnosis [1, 2]. However, within hematological malignancies in particular, early signs of slowly progressing or pre-malignant conditions may in fact be detectable several years before the malignant disease is diagnosed [3–5]. Identifying early signs of malig-nancy or pre-malignancy is important in order to increase chances of successful treatment and lower morbidity and mor-tality [6–8]. Even in asymptomatic and otherwise low-risk hematological patients, it has been demonstrated that early detection may enable risk stratification for follow-up of the (pre-)malignant conditions, help provide relevant care and improve early disease detection in the right patients [9]. In this descriptive study we aimed to describe the pre-diagnostic activity in primary care going back 15 years prior to the malig-nant diagnosis in order to explore if laboratory activity may indicate that early (pre-)malignant conditions register in pri-mary care years before a diagnosis is made. This was done by describing the blood sampling activity patterns in primary care in both cancer patients to-be and controls, looking at both solid tumors and hematological malignancies. The overall aim of the study was to evaluate the potential for earlier diag-nosis of certain malignant diseases

AB - A sudden increase in blood sample requisitions from primary care physicians may indicate an incentive to investigate cer-tain symptoms further. Patients with slowly progressing malig-nancies may debut with insidious symptoms and seek medical attention with increasing frequency, which indeed has been demonstrated through different markers of primary care activ-ity in the last 1–2 years prior to a cancer diagnosis [1, 2]. However, within hematological malignancies in particular, early signs of slowly progressing or pre-malignant conditions may in fact be detectable several years before the malignant disease is diagnosed [3–5]. Identifying early signs of malig-nancy or pre-malignancy is important in order to increase chances of successful treatment and lower morbidity and mor-tality [6–8]. Even in asymptomatic and otherwise low-risk hematological patients, it has been demonstrated that early detection may enable risk stratification for follow-up of the (pre-)malignant conditions, help provide relevant care and improve early disease detection in the right patients [9]. In this descriptive study we aimed to describe the pre-diagnostic activity in primary care going back 15 years prior to the malig-nant diagnosis in order to explore if laboratory activity may indicate that early (pre-)malignant conditions register in pri-mary care years before a diagnosis is made. This was done by describing the blood sampling activity patterns in primary care in both cancer patients to-be and controls, looking at both solid tumors and hematological malignancies. The overall aim of the study was to evaluate the potential for earlier diag-nosis of certain malignant diseases

U2 - 10.2340/1651-226X.2024.28559

DO - 10.2340/1651-226X.2024.28559

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 38349122

AN - SCOPUS:85185144467

VL - 63

SP - 17

EP - 22

JO - Acta Oncologica

JF - Acta Oncologica

SN - 1100-1704

ER -