Typical and atypical presenting symptoms of breast cancer and their associations with diagnostic intervals: Evidence from a national audit of cancer diagnosis.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Most symptomatic women with breast cancer have relatively short diagnostic intervals but a substantial minority experience prolonged journeys to diagnosis. Atypical presentations (with symptoms other than breast lump) may be responsible.

Methods

We examined the presenting symptoms of breast cancer in women using data from a national audit initiative (n=2316). Symptoms were categorised topographically. We investigated variation in the length of the patient interval (time from symptom onset to presentation) and the primary care interval (time from presentation to specialist referral) across symptom groups using descriptive analyses and quantile regression.

Results

A total of 56 presenting symptoms were described: breast lump was the most frequent (83%) foll

SUBMITTER: Koo MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5482318 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature