ArticleCancer medicine2026
Influence of Diagnostic and Treatment Delays on Survival Outcomes in Patients With Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer: A Multi-Center Retrospective Cohort Study.
Article in Cancer medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo investigate the impact of diagnostic and treatment delays on the prognosis of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC).
methodsRetrospective analyses were performed in Chinese and American cohorts. The intervals from symptom onset to diagnosis and from diagnosis to initial treatment were defined as diagnostic and treatment delays. A univariate and multivariable Cox regression model was conducted for overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and disease-free survival (DFS).
resultsA total of 450 Chinese and 5810 American patients were included in this study. Multivariable analysis revealed that a prolonged diagnostic delay (> 5 months) was significantly associated with decreased OS (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.50, p = 0.041) and DFS (HR: 1.36, p = 0.047). Additionally, an extended treatment delay (> 2 months) was closely associated with reduced OS (> 1 and ≤ 2 months vs. ≤ 1 month, HR: 1.06, p = 0.386; > 2 months vs. ≤ 1 month, HR: 1.52, p < 0.001) and CSS (> 1 and ≤ 2 months vs. ≤ 1 month, HR: 1.03, p = 0.693; > 2 months vs. ≤ 1 month, HR: 1.58, p = 0.001) in patients with LARC.
conclusionDiagnostic intervals exceeding 5 months and treatment delays of more than 2 months are significantly associated with unfavorable survival outcomes in LARC patients. These findings underscore the importance of timely diagnostic pathways and treatment initiation and may serve as clinically meaningful benchmarks for healthcare systems to optimize referral processes, resource allocation, and quality-of-care assessment in rectal cancer management.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.