Table 1. Characteristics of patients (n = 248). Patients were divided into two groups depending on the referral site

	General practice (n = 86)	Diagnostic centre (n = 162)	P value
Sex
Women, n	43 (50.0%)	82 (50.6%)	0.926^a
Men, n	43 (50.0%)	80 (49.4%)	0.926^a
Age
Total, mean (± SD)	69.8 (±11.1)	67.3 (±14.4)	0.160^b
Modality
CT, n	85 (98.8%)	105 (64.8%)	<0.000 ^a*
¹⁸F-FDG-PET/CT, n	1 (1.2%)	57 (35.2%)	<0.000 ^a*
Cancer
Cancer, n	25 (29.1%)	27 (16.7%)	0.009 ^a*
Non-cancer, n	61 (70.9%)	135 (83.3%)
Total	86	162
Number of symptoms	2 (0–7)	2 (0–8)	0.002 ^c*
Total	86	162

^aχ² test. ^b t-test. ^cFisher’s exact test. Bold and asterisked = statistically significant.