Diagnostic and prognostic factors in patients with prostate cancer: a systematic review.

As part of the PIONEER Consortium objectives, we have explored which diagnostic and prognostic factors (DPFs) are available in relation to our previously defined clinician and patient-reported outcomes for prostate cancer (PCa).

We performed a systematic review to identify validated and non-validated studies.

MEDLINE, Embase and the Cochrane Library were searched on 21 January 2020.

Only quantitative studies were included. Single studies with fewer than 50 participants, published before 2014 and looking at outcomes which are not prioritised in the PIONEER core outcome set were excluded.

After initial screening, we extracted data following the Checklist for Critical Appraisal and Data Extraction for Systematic Reviews of prognostic factor studies (CHARMS-PF) criteria and discussed the identified factors with a multidisciplinary expert group. The quality of the included papers was scored for applicability and risk of bias using validated tools such as PROBAST, Quality in Prognostic Studies and Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2.

The search identified 6604 studies, from which 489 DPFs were included. Sixty-four of those were internally or externally validated. However, only three studies on diagnostic and seven studies on prognostic factors had a low risk of bias and a low risk concerning applicability.

Most of the DPFs identified require additional evaluation and validation in properly designed studies before they can be recommended for use in clinical practice. The PIONEER online search tool for DPFs for PCa will enable researchers to understand the quality of the current research and help them design future studies.

There are no ethical implications.

BMJ open. 2022 Apr 04*** epublish ***

Katharina Beyer, Lisa Moris, Michael Lardas, Anna Haire, Francesco Barletta, Simone Scuderi, Megan Molnar, Ronald Herrera, Abdul Rauf, Riccardo Campi, Isabella Greco, Kirill Shiranov, Saeed Dabestani, Thomas van den Broeck, Sujenthiran Arun, Mauro Gacci, Giorgio Gandaglia, Muhammad Imran Omar, Steven MacLennan, Monique J Roobol, Bahman Farahmand, Eleni Vradi, Zsuzsanna Devecseri, Alex Asiimwe, Jihong Zong, Sara J Maclennan, Laurence Collette, James NDow, Alberto Briganti, Anders Bjartell, Mieke Van Hemelrijck, and the PIONEER Consortium

Translational and Oncology Research (TOUR), King's College London, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, London, UK ., Department of Urology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium., Department of Urology, Metropolitan Hospital, Athens, Greece., Translational and Oncology Research (TOUR), King's College London, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, London, UK., Unit of Urology/Division of Oncology, URI, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, Italy., Bayer AG, Berlin, Germany., Department of Urology, Mid Cheshire Hospitals, NHS Foundation Trust, Crewe, UK., Department of Minimally Invasive and Robotic Urologic Surgery and Kidney Transplantation, University of Florence, Florence, Italy., CDC Zdorovie, Rostov-on-Don, Russia., Dept. of Translational Medicine, Division of Urological Cancers, Lund University, Kristianstad Central Hospital, Malmo, Sweden., Flatiron Health, London, UK., Academic Urology Unit, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK., Department of Urology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands., Global Epidemiology, Bayer AG, Stockholm, Sweden., Sanofi, Paris, France., Global Medical Affairs Oncology, Real World Evidence, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc, Whippany, New Jersey, USA., EORTC Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium., Department of Translational Medicine, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden.

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