digital rectal examination (DRE) diagnostic value for rectal cancer

Last edited 04/2019

Digital rectal examination in primary care for palpable rectal tumour has a sensitivity of 0.762, specificity of 0.917, positive predictive value of 0.296 and negative predictive value of 0.988.

It is an inaccurate procedure and a poor predictor for palpable rectal tumour (1).

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