Table 1.
Characteristics of patients referred to the study neuroscience centers by referral type excluding unknown and unusual referral pathways.
| Characteristics | Referral typea | P valueb | ||||||||||
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Electronic | Paper proforma | Paper letter | Internal |
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| Patients, n | 83 | 94 | 20 | 41 |
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| Age (years), median (IQR) | 70 (56-76) | 64 (52-72) | 66 (36-76) | 58 (47-72) | .15 | |||||||
| Female:male ratio | 2:2 | 3:2 | 4:2 | 1:3 | .72 | |||||||
| WHOc PSd on referral, n (%)e | .51 | |||||||||||
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PS-0 | 42 (51) | 42 (45) | 5 (25) | 4 (10) |
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PS-1 | 24 (29) | 18 (19) | 0 (0) | 4 (10) |
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PS-2 | 8 (10) | 9 (10) | 1 (5) | 1 (2) |
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PS-3 | 5 (6) | 6 (6) | 1 (5) | 0 (0) |
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PS-4 | 4 (5) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
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Not stated | 0 (0) | 19 (20) | 13 (65) | 32 (78) |
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| Multidisciplinary team meeting diagnosis, n (%)f | .09 | |||||||||||
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Meningioma | 16 (19) | 19 (20) | 4 (20) | 8 (20) |
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HGGg (WHO III-IV) | 23 (28) | 16 (17) | 3 (15) | 3 (7) |
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Metastasis | 10 (12) | 20 (21) | 1 (5) | 14 (34) |
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Lesion or massh | 14 (17) | 14 (15) | 3 (15) | 3 (7) |
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Other CNSi tumorj | 5 (6) | 8 (9) | 2 (10) | 7 (17) |
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Other nontumor lesionk | 6 (7) | 4 (4) | 2 (10) | 3 (7) |
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LGG (WHO I-II)l | 1 (1) | 6 (6) | 2 (10) | 2 (5) |
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Lymphoma | 4 (5) | 2 (2) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
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Spinal tumor | 1 (1) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
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Unknown or unclear | 1 (1) | 4 (4) | 2 (10) | 0 (0) |
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Missing/not stated | 2 (2) | 0 (0) | 1 (5) | 1 (2) |
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| Neuro-oncology surgery | 34 (41) | 37 (39) | 9 (45) | 13 (32) | .72 | |||||||
| Eventual diagnosis after surgery or further investigations, n (%) | .33 | |||||||||||
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HGG (WHO III-IV) | 14 (41) | 13 (35) | 2 (22) | 2 (15) |
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Meningioma | 2 (6) | 3 (8) | 2 (22) | 4 (31) |
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LGG (WHO I-II) | 4 (12) | 4 (11) | 1 (11) | 1 (8) |
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Metastasis | 1 (3) | 5 (14) | 1 (11) | 3 (23) |
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Other CNS tumor | 2 (6) | 2 (5) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
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Lymphoma | 0 (0) | 1 (3) | 0 (0) | 1 (8) |
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Non-CNS tumor | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (8) |
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Unknown or unclear | 1 (3) | 1 (3) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
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Missing or not stated | 10 (29) | 8 (22) | 3 (33) | 1 (8) |
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a7 referrals initially done as emergency neurosurgery referrals and 3 cases with unknown referral source were excluded.
bExcluding cases with unknown or missing values.
cWHO: World Health Organization.
dPS: performance status.
eEastern Cooperative Oncology Group/WHO performance status levels.
fMultidisciplinary team diagnosis: initial/suspected diagnosis following multidisciplinary team meeting discussion.
gHGG: high-grade glioma.
hDiagnoses included lesion/s or mass, with or without location mentioned.
iCNS: central nervous system.
jDiagnoses included tumor, neoplasm, glioma, ependymoma, dermoid, craniopharyngioma, medulloblastoma, or schwannoma.
kDiagnoses included cyst, demyelination, bleed, infarct, abscess, inflammatory, fungal, and herpes.
lLGG: low-grade glioma.