Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Dec 15, 2015; 7(12): 422-433
Published online Dec 15, 2015. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v7.i12.422
Published online Dec 15, 2015. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v7.i12.422
Colorectal cancer diagnosis: Pitfalls and opportunities
Pablo Vega, Fátima Valentín, Joaquín Cubiella, Department of Gastroenterology, Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Ourense, 32003 Ourense, Spain
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to this work.
Supported by A grant from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI11/00094).
Conflict-of-interest statement: None.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Joaquín Cubiella, Department of Gastroenterology, Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Ourense, Rua Ramón Puga 52-54, 32003 Ourense, Spain. joaquin.cubiella.fernandez@sergas.es
Telephone: +34-98-8385399 Fax: +34-98-8385399
Received: April 15, 2015
Peer-review started: April 17, 2015
First decision: July 1, 2015
Revised: August 26, 2015
Accepted: September 25, 2015
Article in press: September 28, 2015
Published online: December 15, 2015
Processing time: 243 Days and 19.7 Hours
Peer-review started: April 17, 2015
First decision: July 1, 2015
Revised: August 26, 2015
Accepted: September 25, 2015
Article in press: September 28, 2015
Published online: December 15, 2015
Processing time: 243 Days and 19.7 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: In this review, we summarize the pitfalls in the diagnostic procedure for colorectal cancer (CRC) in symptomatic patients. We collected the available information concerning the value of symptoms as predictors of CRC and the factors involved in the delay of CRC diagnosis, including those related to the patient, to the physicians and to hospital delay. In this way, we review the currently available sets of appropriateness criteria for colonoscopy in symptomatic patients, the prioritization criteria and predictive models for CRC detection and, finally, the role of available biomarkers in the evaluation of symptomatic patients.