Table 3.
Summative results of the 51 studies by cancer type
| Site of malignancy | Histopathological type | No. of studies | Total no. of patients | Specimen state | Summative evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cervical | Cervical SCC | 4 | 638 | In-vivo | Stronga |
| Prostate | – | 12 | 297 | Both | Strong |
| Skin | Skin melanoma & NMSC | 7 | 3009 | In-vivo | Moderate |
| Breast | Various carcinomas | 12 | 2460 | Both | Moderate |
| Oral mucosa | SCC | 2 | 198 | In-vivo | Moderate |
| Bladder | – | 3 | 123 | Both | Moderate |
| Thyroid | Various carcinomas | 1 | 27 | In-vivo | Moderate |
| Colorectal | Adenocarcinoma | 1 | 22 | Ex-vivo | Moderate |
| Tongue | SCC | 2 | 29 | In-vivo | Weak |
| Lung | Various | 2 | 138 | Both | Weak |
| Hepatic | Metastases | 2 | 16 | Ex-vivo | Weak |
| Oesophagus | SCC & adenocarcinoma | 1 | 23 | In-vivo | Weak |
| Gastric | Adenocarcinoma | 1 | 45 | In-vivo | Weak |
| Renal | Renal cell carcinoma | 1 | 10 | Ex-vivo | Weak |
SCC: squamous cell carcinoma; NMSC: non-melanomatous skin cancer; BCC: basal cell carcinoma; ‘–’, not stated
Summative evidence strength classified as “Strong”: 2 or more large studies with good discriminative ability
“Moderate”: good discriminative indices described but in small numbers for any specific histological type
“Weak”: insufficient statistical data to demonstrate significant discriminative ability currently