Identifying early symptoms associated with a diagnosis of childhood, adolescent and young adult cancers: a population-based nested case-control study

Childhood, teenage and young adult (CTYA, 0–24 years) cancers are rare and diverse, making timely diagnosis challenging. We aim to explore symptoms and symptom combinations associated with a subsequent cancer diagnosis and to establish their timeframe.

Using the QResearch Database, we carried out a matched nested case-control study. Associations between pre-specified symptoms encountered in primary care and a subsequent diagnosis of any cancer were explored using conditional logistic regression. Median diagnostic intervals were used to split symptoms into “late” and “early” timeframes to identify relevant early symptoms.

3186 cases and 50,576 controls were identified from a cohort of 3,424,771 CTYA. We identified 12 novel associations, of which hemiparesis [OR 90.9 (95%CI 24.7-335.1), PPV = 1.6%], testicular swelling [OR 186.7 (95%CI 86.1-404.8), PPV = 2.4%] and organomegaly [OR 221.6 (95%CI 28.3-1735.9), PPV = 5.4%] had significant positive predictive values (PPV). Limb pain, a known marker of serious illness in children, was a recurrent early symptom across cancer subtypes. Similar clinical presentations were observed across childhood and TYA cancers.

Using the largest cohort to date, we provide novel information on the time-varying predictive utility of symptoms in the diagnosis of CTYA cancers. Our findings will help to raise clinical and public awareness of symptoms, stratify those at higher-risk and ultimately aid earlier diagnosis.