Blog
Root Causes of Diagnosis and Treatment Delays
September 21, 2012
You may have woken up this morning to the alarming news that one quarter of all cancers are first diagnosed within the casualty department. Early diagnosis of cancer has become a priority area for the healthcare system, particularly in Wales, where it is fair to say that late presentation of malignancy in people is an acute concern and impacts upon survivorship. Whilst it is inevitable that some cancers may only be revealed following an emergency hospital admission, for example, when a previously asymptomatic person with a brain tumour collapses in the street with a seizure, it is acknowledged that much needs to be done to tackle the problem of late diagnosis.
Early detection of tumours are crucial for favourable patient outcomes, the earlier a cancer is detected the easier it becomes to treat, manage and cure. This is underlined by the report today which states that patients with cancers first discovered in casualty have a shorter life expectancy. The reasons for delays in diagnosis and treatment are multi-factorial and may include a lack of awareness, reluctance to visit a G.P. with troublesome symptoms or issues related to service provision. Funding of research that specifically address the issues of early diagnosis has lagged well behind other areas of oncology. At Cancer Research Wales we are proud to announce the timely funding of a research programme that will focus on finding the causes of diagnosis and treatment delays in Welsh cancer patients, in order to successfuly promote early diagnosis. This will be a key factor for improving survival.
The project is being run by the Welsh arm of the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership and will be overseen by Dr Richard Neil a G.P. a senior lecturer in primary care based at Bangor University. This work will gather over the course of 18 months vital information from consenting patients, G.P. surgeries and hospital consultants and will include parameters such as time intervals from first symptoms until the start of treatment, for a number of different cancer types. When collated and analysed, it is hoped these data will unpick some of the reasons why so many patients are receiving a first diagnosis of cancer following an A&E admission, as reported by the media today. The information will also be merged with similar data collected from other countries to allow for comparisons with other advanced heath care systems in the U.K., Europe and the rest of World. It is hoped this will lead to the identification of the major causes of delay in diagnosis and treatment and allow the implementation of initiatives that will significantly improve the early detection of cancers in the people of Wales and beyond.