ArticleJournal of global health2026
Delayed treatment initiation is associated with worse survival in screening-detected patients with upper gastrointestinal cancer in rural China: a 10-year cohort study.
Article in Journal of global health, 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
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Time to treatment initiation (TTI) following cancer detection is a critical component of effective cancer control. In low-resource and rural settings, delays in TTI often reflect health system constraints and may undermine the survival benefits of screening programmes. However, evidence on the association between TTI and long-term survival among screening-positive patients with upper gastrointestinal cancer (UGC) in China is unknown. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 265 screening-positive UGC patients identified from a population-based screening programme conducted between 2014 and 2015 in rural China (total screened population = 13,255). Time to treatment initiation was defined as the interval between confirmed diagnosis and initiation of treatment. Patients were categorised into ≤30 days, >30 days, and untreated groups. The primary outcome was 10-year overall survival (OS). Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs), adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, and clinical variables. Results: The median TTI was 55 days. Patients with TTI≤30 days had significantly higher 10-year OS (90.39%) compared with those with TTI>30 days and untreated patients. After adjustment, delayed treatment (>30 days) was associated with worse OS (HR = 2.50; 95% CI = 1.29-4.82) and cancer-specific survival (HR = 2.41; 95% CI = 1.21-4.79). Factors associated with delayed treatment included male, non-normal BMI, and earlier-stage lesions, indicating socioeconomic and structural barriers to timely treatment. Conclusions: Delays in treatment initiation represent a critical health system bottleneck that significantly compromises long-term survival among screening-detected UGC patients. A TTI threshold of 30 days may serve as a pragmatic quality-of-care indicator. Strengthening linkage-to-care pathways and addressing socioeconomic barriers are essential to maximise the effectiveness of cancer screening programmes in low-resource settings.
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.