ArticleBMC health services research2025
Diagnosis of cancer in the South and North of Nigeria: duration and causes of delay.
Article in BMC health services research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exploring the roles of informal healthcare providers in urban settings to improve access and quality of care for the urban poor: experience from Bangladesh, Ghana, Nepal, and Nigeria.Health policy and planning · 2026Article
- "…it is not the sickness itself that kills. It is the emotional trauma": a qualitative study of the lived experience and systemic barriers of women with breast cancer in Nigeria.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- Assessing perceived needs for telepathology implementation in Colombia: a baseline study from Red GLORIA.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
32 authors.
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Abstract
introductionNigeria has a growing cancer burden, with late presentation and delayed diagnosis contributing to poor outcomes. We explored the durations and causes of the delay in the diagnosis of four common and treatable cancer types (breast, colorectum, head and neck, and uterine cervix) in Nigeria.
methodsRetrospective study based on interviews with cancer patients following the Aarhus framework for designing and reporting such studies. The study focused on the first two of WHO's three main designated stages of cancer diagnosis: duration from symptom to presentation and presentation to histological diagnosis. Our hospital-based study involved 264 patients recruited from tertiary care facilities in the Northwestern (Kano) and Southwestern (Ibadan) regions of Nigeria. We obtained quantitative data to measure the duration of delay by stage, while interview data were collected to explore the causes of delay. We analysed the data by computing the median duration for the two stages of delay, and framework analysis was used to identify themes on the causes of delay.
resultsThe median time to receive a cancer diagnosis after noticing the first symptoms was 12 months (interquartile range 5 to 27 months), with head and neck cancer patients reporting the most prolonged (15-month) delay. Patients waited a median of 3 months (interquartile range 12 months) before presenting their first cancer symptom to a healthcare professional. The median time for patients to receive a cancer diagnosis after the first presentation of symptoms to a formal healthcare professional was 5 months (interquartile range 12 months). There was wide variance for all time intervals. Patients reported visiting a median of 3 health facilities before diagnosis in a formal hospital setting. Qualitative findings identified two main reasons patients reported delays in cancer pathway to care: patient-related factors and health system issues.
conclusionLong delays were observed, and more than half the delay followed presentation to the local health sector.
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