Delay in diagnosis of gastric cancer: a prospective study evaluating doctors'- and patients' delay and its influence on five year survival
Zilling, T.L.; Walther, B.S.; Ahren, B.
Anticancer Research 10(2a): 411-416
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0250-7005 PMID: 2346315 Document Number: 359790
Despite new diagnostic techniques, gastric cancer in its less aggressive stages is not diagnosed more frequently and the prognosis still remains poor. Thus, a possibility exists that there is still a delay in diagnosis. This study was therefore designed to investigate whether a delay in diagnosis of gastric cancer exists, to identify factors leading to diagnostic delay, and to settle whether the prognosis is dependent on a delay. Fifty consecutive patients with gastric carcinoma were interviewed and the diagnostic attempts prior to diagnosis were checked. It was found that thirteen patients (26%) had patients' delay (more than three months of symptoms before consulting a doctor) whereas twelve (24%) had doctors' delay (more than three months of investigations before correct diagnosis was made). Doctors' delay was more common in female (7/13) than in male patients (5/37) (p less than 0.05) and in linitis plastica (5/8) than in other types of gastric cancers (7/42), (p less than 0.05). Seven of the twelve patients with doctors' delay had been on regular check ups before diagnosis. A negative barium meal was the most common reason for doctors' delay. Survival was influenced only by tumour stage (r = -0.71, p less than 0.05). Our conclusion is that both patients' and doctors' delay are considerable in the diagnosis of gastric cancer; it is therefore suggested that improvement in five-year survival requires improved presymptomatic diagnostic methods and screening programmes.