Association between some important abdominal symptoms and new abdominal cancer diagnosed within 180 days after consultation, expressed as hazard ratio, N = 61 337a
| Symptom | New abdominal cancer diagnosed within 180 days, n= 175 | Male, n= 95 | Female, n= 80 | No cancer, n= 61 162 | HR | 95% CI | HR male | HR female |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No abdominal symptom | 99 | 62 | 37 | 55 060 | 1.0 | Ref | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Abdominal pain, upper part, single symptom | 5 | 1 | 4 | 663 | 4.8 | 1.9 to 11.8 | 1.9 | 8.5 |
| Abdominal pain, lower part, single symptom | 5 | 2 | 3 | 608 | 5.8 | 2.4 to 14.3 | 3.8 | 9.1 |
| Constipation, single symptom | 3 | 0 | 3 | 141 | 6.8 | 2.1 to 21.8 | 17.3 | |
| Rectal bleeding, single symptom | 7 | 0 | 7 | 191 | 19.1 | 8.7 to 41.7 | 49.5 | |
| Any other single abdominal symptoms, grouped together | 17 | 11 | 6 | 1751 | 4.7 | 2.8 to 7.9 | 4.9 | 4.3 |
| Two abdominal symptoms | 12 | 8 | 4 | 1574 | 4.6 | 2.5 to 8.5 | 5.6 | 3.5 |
| ≥3 abdominal symptoms | 27 | 11 | 16 | 1174 | 14.0 | 9.1 to 21.6 | 10.2 | 21.1 |
| Male versus female sex | 1.8 | 1.4 to 2.5 |
↵a Multivariate Cox analysis. The model includes mutually exclusive groups (one patient cannot be part of more than one group) containing selected single symptoms, any other remaining symptoms grouped together, combinations of two symptoms, and of ≥3 symptoms. Patients without symptoms are the reference group. HR = hazard ratio. HR is shown for single symptoms and for multiple symptoms, regardless of whether there were also non-specific symptoms. LR = likelihood ratio. PPV = positive predictive value. Ref = reference.