Cancer Prevention & Control: Client- and Provider-Oriented Screening Interventions

Search Strategy

To establish the evidence base the team searched five computerized databases from the earliest entries in each through November 2004: MEDLINE, database of the National Library of Medicine (from 1966); the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health database (CINAHL, from 1982); the Chronic Disease Prevention database (CDP, Cancer Prevention and Control subfield, from 1988); PsycINFO (from 1967); and the Cochrane Library databases. Medical subject headings (MeSH) searched (including all subheadings) are shown below. The team also scanned bibliographies from key articles and solicited other citations from other team members and subject-matter experts. Conference abstracts were not included because, according to Community Guide criteria, they generally do not provide enough information to assess study validity and to address the research questions.

The search identified over 9000 citations whose titles and abstracts were screened for potential relevance to interventions and outcomes of interest; of these, 580 articles were retrieved for full-text review.

Search terms used in five electronic databases to find studies for inclusion in the systematic reviews of cancer screening. Searches were conducted to find all studies of cancer screening including those specific to screening for breast, cervical, or colorectal cancer.

General

Neoplasms—combined with any of the following headings:

Breast cancer

Breast neoplasms
Mammography

Cervical cancer

Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia
(Uterine) cervical neoplasms
Cervix dysplasia
Vaginal smears

Colorectal cancer

Colonic neoplasms
Colorectal neoplasms
Occult blood
Sigmoid neoplasms
Sigmoidoscopy

From: Baron RC, Rimer BK, Coates RJ, et al. Methods for conducting systematic reviews of evidence on effectiveness and economic efficiency of interventions to increase screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers. Am J Prev Med 2008;35(1S):26-33.