Page 17 - Noninvasive Diagnostic Techniques for the Detection of Skin Cancers

Findings

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The MEDLINE database search for primary studies yielded 10,743 citations published
between 1990 and 2011 (Figure 2). Including suggestions from experts, abstract screening
processes identified a total of 629 abstracts meeting inclusion criteria. Among all included
abstracts, 231 were reviews, 348 were primary studies, and 48 were categorized as other
publication type (such as guidelines and commentaries). Of the 231 reviews, 5 were systematic
reviews (< 1 percent of all abstracts), 118 were narrative reviews (21 percent), and 108 were
technical reports (18 percent). Among the 350 abstracts of primary studies, there were 11
abstracts representing 10 distinct RCTs (3 percent), 77 diagnostic tests (22 percent), 64
comparative cohort studies (18 percent), 143 noncomparative cohort studies (41 percent), and 55
case reports (16 percent). The screening results are displayed in Figure 2. Whether or not data
were available in the literature to address the guiding questions is tabulated in Table 1. The
details of the evidence map by device are presented in Appendix D, Tables D1 and D2. Of note,
as seen in Figure 3, while the majority of abstracts reported on primary studies (56 percent), only
3 percent of the primary studies were RCTs. The details of these trials (e.g., objective, setting,
populations) are presented in Appendix D, Table D3.

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