Studies of the causes of treatment delay of cancer patients

The authors have been studying causes of treatment delay of cancer patients for 12 years. The aim of the present study was to analyze treatment delay in 2003-2004 (during 1 year) and compare it with results of the study performed in 1991-1992. 260 patients admitted to the Cracow Cancer Center and other public hospitals located in the regions of Małopolska, Podkarpacie, Świętokrzyskie, Śląskie and Tarnobrzeg were studied. Apart from social and economic analyses (education, place of living, employment, marital status) main causes of treatment delays such as patients’ reasons, physician errors (including diagnostic delays), logistic reasons and unconventional treatment were studied. More than half of the patients see their doctor very late, i.e. at a very advanced stage of the disease when it is too late for any radical treatment. The mean delay due to the patient’s reasons was 8.6 months and it was caused mainly by ignoring symptoms of the disease or due to fear of cancer diagnosis. The mean delay due to the physician error and logistic reasons was 2.9 and 0.8 months, respectively. However, the delay due to unconventional treatment was 4.7 months. Mean delay time of studied parameters was significantly shorter than in 1991-92 with the exception of delays due to unconventional treatment which remained on the same level.