Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, NCI, Bethesda, Maryland.
Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program, Division of Cancer Prevention, NCI, Bethesda, Maryland.
Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2020 Sep;13(9):715-720. doi: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-20-0115. Epub 2020 Jun 3.
Many people are diagnosed with cancer after presenting with signs and symptoms of their disease to a healthcare provider. Research from developed countries suggests that, in addition to indicating later-stage disease, symptoms can also indicate earlier-stage disease, leading to investment in research and quality improvement efforts in the early detection of symptomatic cancers. This approach, labeled early diagnosis of symptomatic cancers, focuses on identifying cancer at the earliest possible stage in patients with potential signs and symptoms of cancer, and subsequently diagnosing and treating the cancer without delay. In the United States, early detection has focused on cancer screening, with relatively less research focused on early diagnosis of symptomatic cancers. In this commentary, we propose that research focused on early diagnosis of symptomatic cancers provides an important opportunity to achieve more earlier-stage cancer diagnoses in the United States. We highlight the potential of these efforts to improve cancer outcomes, and outline a research agenda to improve early diagnosis of symptomatic cancers in the United States focused on defining and describing pathways to cancer diagnosis, identifying signs and symptoms that can be used to promote early cancer detection, and developing interventions to improve early diagnosis of symptomatic cancers.
许多人在向医疗保健提供者出现疾病迹象和症状后被诊断出患有癌症。来自发达国家的研究表明，除了表明疾病处于晚期外，症状还可以表明疾病处于早期阶段，这导致了对早期发现有症状癌症的研究和质量改进工作的投资。这种方法被标记为有症状癌症的早期诊断，其重点是在有癌症潜在迹象和症状的患者中尽可能早地发现癌症，并随后毫不拖延地诊断和治疗癌症。在美国，早期检测主要集中在癌症筛查上，相对较少的研究集中在有症状癌症的早期诊断上。在这篇评论中，我们提出，有针对性地研究有症状癌症的早期诊断为美国提供了一个实现更多早期癌症诊断的重要机会。我们强调了这些努力改善癌症结果的潜力，并概述了一个研究议程，以改善美国有症状癌症的早期诊断，重点是定义和描述癌症诊断途径，确定可用于促进早期癌症检测的迹象和症状，并开发干预措施以改善有症状癌症的早期诊断。
