Delay in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Oral Cancer

Statement of problem: oral and pharyngeal cancer is one of the most mortal cancers;however, its quick diagnosis and referral is a crucial factor in enhancing the survival rateof the patients.purpose: the aim of this study was to inspect the referral conditions and the reasons forthe delay in curing the patients referred to the educational hospitals in tehran.materials and method: in this retrospective -descriptive study, two hundred and fiftysix files related to the oral and pharyngeal cancer were inspected. the documents wereobtained from 5 educational hospitals specialized in the field of cancers. eventually datarelated to the time difference between the first time of attending to lesion and diagnosingthe cancer as patient’s delay and until the curing as professional’s delay were recorded.results: the majority of cancers were squamous cell carcinoma (scc). the patient’sdelay was recorded in 110 files among the whole files. the mean of the time between thepatients’ first notice of the problem and the time visiting a primary care clinician was270 days (range, 0-2520 days). the mean of the time from when the patient visited aprimary- care clinician to the starting time of definitive treatment was 90 days (range, 0-270 days).conclusion: in this study, like other studies, scc was the most common occurring cancer.delays related to the patients were more than those related to the professionals. and at last, accuracy in recording the files and training the patients were recognized to be the most imperative factors to continue the treatment successfully.