Korean J Epidemiol.  1996 Dec;18(2):160-172.

A Study on the Effect of Symptoms to Diagnosis Interval on the Cancer Survival

• Kang HJ
• Ohrr HC
• Kim HO
• Jee SH
• Shon TY

Abstract

For many years, members of medical profession have believed that the shorter symptoms to diagnosis interval(SDI) might be related to early stages and that the prompt treatments might improve survival rates in cancer patients. But this notion has been challenged by many researches for many years. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of SDI on the cancer survival for 221 stomach cancer cases, 106 lung cancer cases, 74 liver cancer cases and 59 cervix cancer cases. These cancer cases are registered ones in Kanghwa Cancer Registery Program from 1987 to 1991. Relationships among SDI, stages of cancers, operation rates, and survival were analysed. Results are as follows: 1. SDI was not related to stages of cancer. There were no difference in the distribution of stages among five SDI subgroups. 2. This data did not support that SDI affects the survival of stomach cancer patients. The cancer stages did affect survival in stomach cancer patients though. 3. Our data did not support that SDI affects cancer survival. A Cox proportional hazard model showed that SDI does not play a important role in cancer survival controlling age, gender, stage and other variables in the model. Further studies are highly expected to clarify the relationships between SDI and cancer survivals. Researches with bigger sample size and more sophisticated variables would be needed.

MeSH Terms

Diagnosis*
Humans
Liver Neoplasms
Lung Neoplasms
Proportional Hazards Models
Sample Size
Stomach Neoplasms
Survival Rate
Uterine Cervical Neoplasms