Timeliness of In-Hospital Journey of Suspected Lung Cancer Patients: From First Presentation-to-Start of Therapy

Akash Verma

doi:10.16966/2381-3318.102

Abstract

Timeliness of In-Hospital Journey of Suspected Lung Cancer Patients: From First Presentation-to-Start of Therapy

Highlights

Journey of the suspected lung cancer patients in the hospital is made up of four sequential stages
After developing lung cancer related symptoms, patients who first presented to Emergency Department (ED) had shorter delay of 2 (1-232) days in having the Computed Tomography (CT) scan performed as inpatient during their hospitalization, versus those who presented to General Practitioner (GP), poly-clinic, or non-respiratory physician clinic of 5 (1-595) days (p=0.02)
Those referred to respiratory specialist and managed either as suspected lung cancer (n=30), or as suspected smear negative tuberculosis (n=24) had significantly longer delay in performing the CT scan of 6 (2-201), and 28 (2-438) vs. 2 (1-595) days for those referred to ED (p=0.003) respectively

Summary

Introduction

Journey of the suspected lung cancer patients in the hospital is made up of four sequential stages. The timeliness of each stage depends on the timeliness of the output of the stage prior to it These stages are: 1) first presentation to healthcare facility for clinical & radiographic features of lung cancer-to-first computed tomography (CT) scan or pulmonary specialist consult; 2) CT scan-to-diagnostic procedure; 3) diagnostic procedure-to-confirmation of diagnosis, and 4) confirmation of diagnosisto- start of treatment. Based on the recommendations of Swedish Lung Cancer Study Group, most patients with suspected lung cancer should complete the diagnostic test by 4 weeks of consulting the chest physician [1]. This should be followed by initiation of therapy within 2 weeks [1]. The maximum wait time permissible between first presentation to healthcare facility for clinical & radiographic features of lung cancer and start of treatment is 60 days [4,5]

Objectives

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion