title: A systematic review of test performance in screening for oral cancer and precancer.
abstract: Nine databases were searched for studies on test performance in screening for oral cancer and precancer in primary care. Of 481 papers, full texts of 47 were scrutinised by two reviewers. Only prospective investigations of population screening involving examination of the oral mucosa, with gold standard verification (examination by an expert of subjects screened positive and at least a proportion of negatives), were selected. Seven papers describing eight studies were finally included (kappa=0.83). The weighted pooled value of sensitivity, from random effects meta-analysis, was 0.848 (95% CI 0.730, 0.919). The corresponding value for specificity was 0.965 (95% CI 0.930, 0.982). Main sources of clinical heterogeneity occurred between large house-to-house case finding programmes from SE Asia, utilising primary health workers, and smaller studies from England and Japan. Meta-analysis regression showed no difference (P=0.99) in the generally high level of discriminatory ability of the test between these two groups.
authors.affiliation: Eastman Dental Institute for Oral Health Care Sciences, University College London, 256 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8LD, UK. m.downer@mailbox.ulcc.ac.uk
authors.forename: Martin C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Downer
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Moles
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Palmer
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Speight
mesh_terms: D019540:Area Under Curve; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000592:standards*; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity