Título:	Inappropriate requests for tumor markers in patients aged 50 years and older : lessons not learned
Autor(es):	Nascimento Júnior, Valter Paz Camargos, Einstein Francisco de
ORCID:	http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4498-2811 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1991-5529
Assunto:	Tumores Biomarcadores
Data de publicação:	24-Set-2020
Referência:	NASCIMENTO JÚNIOR, Valter Paz; CAMARGOS, Einstein Francisco. Inappropriate requests for tumor markers in patients aged 50 years and older: lessons not learned. SciELO Preprints, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/SciELOPreprints.1228. Disponível em: https://preprints.scielo.org/index.php/scielo/preprint/view/1228. Acesso em: 06 out. 2020.
Abstract:	Tumor marker (TM) requests are common in the clinical practice when screening for neoplasms. Objectives: To investigate, within a private health insurance, the ordering frequency and the costs related to inappropriate TM test orders. Methods:This study analyzed data regarding TM requests within a private health insurance between 2010 and 2017. Patients included in this analysis were ≥ 50 years old, had available medical records, and had at least 1 TM tested within the study period. Tests were considered inappropriate when TMs were used in screening for neoplasms, ie, when there was no previous diagnosis. We evaluated data regarding age, sex, the ordering physician’s medical specialty, and test costs. Results:Between 2010 and 2017, 1112 TM tests were performed and increased from 52 to 262 per year. Our sample consisted mostly of women (69.5%) with a mean age of 59.4 (SD, 8.2) years. Most orders were inappropriate (87.8%) and represented 79.4% of all expenses with TM tests. Cardiology professionals were the medical specialty that requested the most TM tests (23.9%), followed by internal medicine specialists (22.7%) and gynecologists (19.2%). Conclusion: We observed a high percentage of inappropriate test orders in the study period, resulting in elevated costs. Studies of this nature deserve the attention of health care managers, and interventions should be performed in order to reducethe inappropriate use of TM tests in clinical practice.
Unidade Acadêmica:	Faculdade de Medicina (FMD)
Licença:	(CC BY) - Este trabalho está licenciado sob uma licença Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Fonte: https://preprints.scielo.org/index.php/scielo/preprint/view/1228. Acesso em: 06 out. 2020.
DOI:	https://doi.org/10.1590/SciELOPreprints.1228
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