Weight loss as an early indication of cancer
Project Details
This project was a replication study of a UK diagnostic accuracy that aimed to calculate the six month risk of cancer in primary care patients with unexplained weight loss (UWL). For our study we first derived a cohort of patients with unexplained weight loss and included relevant blood tests and weight measurements. We then used the cancer registry data to identify the proportion of patients who are diagnosed with cancer within six months of first presenting with UWL.
Patron ID: PAT1033_4
Project Lead: Prof Jon Emery
Research Outcomes
Project Outcome
Unintended weight loss (UWL) is a non-specific symptom that some primary care patients present with and can be indicative of a range of underlying conditions, including cancer. In this project, using Patron data linked to hospital and cancer registry data, we sought to quantify the cancer risk of UWL in patients who present with this symptom, comparing with results obtained from a similar study in the UK.
We found that the risk of cancer from unintended weight loss was similar in both studies, being above 3% for patients over 50 years of age, which is a common threshold that warrants further investigation. In conjunction with abnormal blood test results UWL was associated with an even higher risk of cancer. As well as being able to validate the clinical findings from the UK study, the project resulted in a methodology for the development of so-called phenotyping algorithms that use data from electronic health records to identify cohorts of patients with specific clinical characteristics. The phenotyping algorithm developed for UWL alerts GPs to those patients who are at greatest risk, and is currently being implemented as part of the Future Health Today decision support tool.