Delay in the diagnosis and outcome of colorectal cancer: a prospective study.

AIMS

The aim of this study was to examine the incidence of the delay in the diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma, possible causes of this delay and its effects on outcome.

METHODS

A prospective study was performed on 100 patients affected by colorectal cancer. Duration of symptoms was calculated from the date of onset of symptoms to the date of surgery.

RESULTS

Sixty-nine patients suffered delays in treatment of more than 12 weeks from the onset of symptoms. In patients with symptoms of less than 12 weeks' duration there was a higher incidence of radical surgery and none of these patients presented, at the time of surgery, a neoplastic dissemination. Multivariate analysis, however, showed that the only factors with an independent effect on 5-year survival and disease-free survival were Dukes' stage and the presence of pre-operative complications.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study suggest that, independent of the diagnostic delay, the outcome of the colorectal cancer is only conditioned by tumour stage and by complicated cancer.