Skip to main content

Table 1 Overview of results: Symptoms association with cancer.

From: Most bowel cancer symptoms do not indicate colorectal cancer and polyps: a systematic review

Symptom

DOR* (95% CI*)

AUC**

Sensitivity (95% CI)

1-specificity

(95% CI)

LR+ (95% CI)

LR- (95% CI)

Rectal bleeding#

2.6

(1.9-3.6)

p < 0.001

0.66

0.46

(0.38-0.55)

0.25

(0.19-0.31).

1.9

(1.5-2.3)

0.7

(0.6-0.8)

Blood mixed with stool:

3.1

(2.0-4.8)

p < 0.001

0.68

0.49

(0.30-0.69)

0.24

(0.13-0.40)

2.1

(1.5-2.8)

0.7

(0.5-0.9)

Blood: dark red

3.9

(1.7 - 9.2)

P = 0.004

0.71

0.29

(0.09-0.65)

0.10

(0.03-0.28)

3.1

(1.6-6.0)

0.8

(0.6-1.1)

Change in bowel habit

1.5

(0.8-2.8)

p = 0.16

0.57

0.32

(0.21-0.46)

0.24

(0.15-0.35)

1.4

(0.9-2.1)

0.9

(0.7-1.1)

Constipation

1.1

(0.8-1.5)

p = 0.48

0.52

0.12

(0.08-0.18)

0.11

(0.07-0.16).

1.1

(0.8-1.5)

1.0

(1.0-1.0)

Diarrhoea

0.9

(0.4-1.7)

p = 0.65

0.47

0.15

(0.07-0.28)

0.17

(0.09-0.29)

0.9

(0.5-1.6)

1.0

(0.9-1.1)

Abdominal pain

0.7

(0.5-1.1)

p = 0.12

0.45

0.19

(0.13-0.28)

0.24

(0.17-0.33).

0.8

(0.6-1.1)

1.1

(1.0-1.2)

Weight loss

2.9

(1.6-5.0)

p = 0.001

0.67

0.20

(0.12-0.31)

0.08

(0.05-0.13).

2.5

(1.5-4.0)

0.9

(0.8-1.0)

  1. *DOR = diagnostic odds ratio. No association between symptom and cancer if DOR = 1
  2. **AUC = area under the Receiver operating characteristic curve. No association between symptom and cancer if AUC = 0.5
  3. # Bleeding of any type
  4. Note: Results for bleeding types for which there 3 or more papers or for which the DOR was > 1 are shown. Results for other bleeding types are shown in Additional File 4.