Symptomatic diagnosis of prostate cancer in primary care: a structured review.
BACKGROUND
Prostate cancer has the second highest cancer incidence and mortality in European men. Most prostate cancers are diagnosed after lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are presented to primary care, but such symptoms more often have a benign cause. A general practitioner (GP) has to try and identify which of these patients have prostate cancer.


OBJECTIVE
To review the presenting features of symptomatic prostate cancer.


METHODS
Structured review.


METHODS
We searched Medline from 1980 to 2003 for symptoms, signs, and investigations reported in prostate cancer. This list was then expanded by secondary searches of reference lists. We excluded studies on post-diagnostic topics, such as staging, treatment, and prognosis; studies on non-Western patients; and studies on investigations that are not available in primary care. A second cycle of exclusions removed studies whose results would not guide a GP in deciding whether a patient has prostate cancer.


RESULTS
No studies from primary care compared prostate cancer patients directly with controls. Two secondary care studies had enough information to allow a comparison of symptoms in cases compared with controls. In these studies, symptoms were generally more prevalent in cases, but the differences were small. Screening and secondary care studies suggest that early prostate cancer is symptomless, and that locally advanced cancer has LUTS that are similar to those for benign prostatic hypertrophy.


CONCLUSIONS
There is a very weak evidence base for the primary care diagnosis of prostate cancer in men with lower urinary tract symptoms.
Hamilton
William
W
Division of Primary Health Care, University of Bristol, Cotham House, Cotham Hill, Bristol BS6 6JL. w.hamilton@bristol.ac.uk
Sharp
Deborah
D
D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010173:Palpation / Q000379:methods; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D012007:Rectum; D014570:Urologic Diseases / Q000209:etiology*