Short summary

The present project utilizes already available data in the central health registers for a characterization of the diagnostic work-out which precedes a diagnosis of cancer with unknown primary tumor (CUP).

Rationale

Cancer of unknown primary tumour (CUP) represents a significant challenge in clinical medicine. Patients with CUP are burdened by undergoing clinical investigations without specific diagnostic conclusions, thereby being left without optimal targeted treatment.

Methods for diagnostic investigation of cancers are developed and improved continuously. This applies mostly in imaging and nuclear medical diagnostics. However, from a clinical experience, questions can be raised about whether the diagnostic work-out that precedes a diagnosis of CUP is optimal.

More knowledge of the clinical investigations precede a diagnosis of CUP may provide a basis for assessing the potential for optimization of the diagnostic work-out.

The present project utilizes already available data in the central health registers for a characterization of the diagnostic work-out which precedes a diagnosis of CUP - hereafter called the CUP process.

Specific aspects to be covered by the project in the population of patients with a diagnosis of CUP:

• Number of relevant imaging diagnostic investigations, with trends over time and by regions
• The incidence of specific cancers that may be diagnosed subsequent to a diagnosis of CUP.

The project is purely descriptive in nature with no pre-specified scientific hypotheses to be tested. It is anticipated that the results will generate hypotheses for testing in further targeted studies.

Description of the cohort

The study cohort comprises all patients with a diagnosis of CUP registered as the main discharge diagnosis in the Danish National Patient Register during the period January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2010.

Data and biological material

All CUP trajectories are enriched with data from the Danish Cancer Registry, the Danish National Patient Register and the Danish Civil Registration System.

Collaborating researchers and departments

Department of Nuclear Medicine, Odense University Hospital

• Data Manager Anne-Kirstine Dyrvig
• Associate Professor Oke Gerke, PhD
• Associate Professor Søren Hess, MD
• Professor Poul Flemming Høilund-Carlsen, DMSc

Department of Endocrinology, Odense University Hospital

• Associate Professor Knud Bonnet Yderstræde, MD, PhD

OPEN Odense Patient data Explorative Network, Odense University Hospital

• Data Manager Peter Bjødstrup Jensen, PhD