ArticleThe Annals of thoracic surgery2017
Timeliness of Care and Lung Cancer Tumor-Stage Progression: How Long Can We Wait?
Article in The Annals of thoracic surgery, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Guideline
- Multilevel factors associated with timeliness of care along the lung cancer care continuum: A systematic review.Journal of the American Pharmacists Association : JAPhAPooled it
- Validation of a blood-based autoantibody test to assess lung cancer risk in 4-30 mm pulmonary nodules: a retrospective pooled analysis of four cohort studies.Future oncology (London, England) · 2026Article
- Single-Anesthesia Event for Lung Nodule Marking and Minimally Invasive Sublobar Resection.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- The impact of smoking on lung cancer patients.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2025Review
- Exploratory Algorithms to Aid in Risk of Malignancy Prediction for Indeterminate Pulmonary Nodules.Cancers · 2025Article
- Delays in phases of care from identification to treatment of suspicious lung nodules.JTCVS open · 2025Article
- Assessment of the interval between diagnosis and definitive treatment of lung cancer at a public institution in São Paulo.Revista do Colegio Brasileiro de Cirurgioes · 2025Observational
- Diagnostic and therapeutic delays in lung cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic: a single center experience at a German Cancer center.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2024Article
- Article
- The Effect of Pandemic on Lung Cancer Waiting Time - Tertiary Center Experience.Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP · 2024Article
- Death by a thousand delays.JTCVS open · 2024Article
- 'Don't freak out if you get a letter saying cancer patient pathways!': Communication work between different demands in cancer care.Health (London, England : 1997) · 2024Article
- Does waiting for surgery matter? How time from diagnostic MRI to resection affects outcomes in newly diagnosed glioblastoma.Journal of neurosurgery · 2024Article
- Article
- The Effect of Timeliness of Care on Lung Cancer Survival - A Population-Based Approach.Annals of global health · 2023Article
- Article
- Integrated Biomarkers for the Management of Indeterminate Pulmonary Nodules.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2021Article
- Diagnosis-to-surgery interval and survival for different histologies of stage I-IIA lung cancer.Translational lung cancer research · 2021Article
- Understanding the patient journey to diagnosis of lung cancer.BMC cancer · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundTimely care of lung cancer is presumed critical, yet clear evidence of stage progression with delays in care is lacking. We investigated the reasons for delays in treatment and the impact these delays have on tumor-stage progression.
methodsWe queried our retrospective database of 265 veterans who underwent cancer resection from 2005 to 2015. We extracted time intervals between nodule identification, diagnosis, and surgical resection; changes in nodule radiographic size over time; final pathologic staging; and reasons for delays in care. Pearson's correlation and Fisher's exact test were used to compare cancer growth and stage by time to treatment.
resultsMedian time from referral to surgical evaluation was 11 days (interquartile range, 8 to 17). Median time from identification to therapeutic resection was 98 days (interquartile range, 66 to 139), and from diagnosis to resection, 53 days (interquartile range, 35 to 77). Sixty-eight patients (26%) were diagnosed at resection; the remainder had preoperative tissue diagnoses. No significant correlation existed between tumor growth and time between nodule identification and resection, or between tumor growth and time between diagnosis and resection. Among 197 patients with preoperative diagnoses, 42% (83) had intervals longer than 60 days between diagnosis and resection. Most common reasons for delay were cardiac clearance, staging, and smoking cessation. Larger nodules had fewer days between identification and resection (p = 0.03).
conclusionsEvaluation, staging, and smoking cessation drive resection delays. The lack of association between tumor growth and time to treatment suggests other clinical or biological factors, not time alone, underlie growth risk. Until these factors are identified, delays to diagnosis and treatment should be minimized.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.