Table 1.

Characteristics of the included studies on patients presenting to primary care with symptoms that might indicate brain/CNS cancer including method of verification of malignant/benign diagnosis

Study	Country	Design	Total number eligible	Number of patients with brain/CNS cancer	Reference standard
Ansell et al . (2010) (17)	UK	National population-based case–control study of children aged 1–14 years	480	195 (mean age of patients = 7.31 years; SE = 0.27 years)	Diagnosis of brain tumour in their primary care record
Dommett et al . (2013) (18,19)	UK	Population-based nested case– control study using data from the GPRD from children and young adults aged 0–24 years	5634	424 (0–4 years: N = 73; 5–14 years: N = 197; 15–24 years: N = 154)	Diagnosis of brain/CNS cancer in the GPRD
Hamilton and Kernick (2007) (20)	UK	Population-based nested case– control study using data from the GPRD from adults aged ≥18 years	19570	2397 (of a total of 3505 cases with brain tumours, the remainder were benign; 584/2397 malignant tumours occurred in patients aged 60–69 years)	Diagnosis of brain tumour in the GPRD
Kernick et al . (2008) (16)	UK	Retrospective, consecutive patients using data from the GPRD from adults aged ≥18 years	85679	107 (<50 years: N = 37; ≥50 years: N = 70)	1-year follow-up
Kernick et al . (2009) (21)	UK	Retrospective, consecutive patients using data from the GPRD from children aged 5–17 years	48575	13	1-year follow-up

GPRD, UK General Practice Research Database (now renamed the Clinical Practice Research Datalink); SE, standard error.