Abstract

Background: Routine laboratory tests are almost universally ordered for patients investigated for possible cancer, yet it is still unclear how far these everyday measurements can help to separate malignant from non‑malignant disease once a patient has reached specialist care. Objective: To describe the relationship between cancer diagnosis (cancer vs no cancer) and a set of simple demographic, hematological, biochemical, and clinical variables, and to examine whether any of these measures show a meaningful association with cancer status in a referred population.
Methods: We carried out an analytical cross‑sectional study of 1,000 individuals drawn from the Cancer Risk Stratification Using Lab Parameters dataset. Age, sex, smoking, family history, full blood count indices, blood glucose, CA‑125, PSA, CEA, risk category, cancer stage, treatment outcome, and survival were retrieved. Cancer status (cancer vs no cancer) was the main outcome. Descriptive statistics were combined with χ² tests, independent t‑tests, one‑way ANOVA, and Pearson’s correlations. Results: Cancer was present in just over four‑fifths of the cohort. Most routine blood and chemistry values lay within conventional reference limits, and for almost all variables there were no statistically significant differences between cancer and non‑cancer groups. Hemoglobin was modestly but significantly lower in patients with cancer. Cancer status was strongly related to stage, and showed a weaker association with survival.
Conclusion: In this cancer‑enriched referral population, single routine laboratory measures and basic demographic factors added little to the simple knowledge of whether a patient had been staged as having cancer. Hemoglobin behaved as a non‑specific marker of disease burden rather than a diagnostic test.

Key words: Cancer diagnosis; routine blood tests; hemoglobin; tumor markers; risk stratification.