A SHORT DIAGNOSTIC DELAY IS MORE IMPORTANT FOR RECTAL-CANCER THAN FORCOLONIC-CANCER

Objective: To study the association between a short diagnostic delay a nd tumour stage in patients with colonic and rectal cancer. Design: Pr ospective study. Setting: Multicentre study, Sweden. Patients: 336 pat ients with colonic, and 218 patients with rectal cancer. Main outcome measures: Incidence and duration of symptoms, delay in diagnosis, and stage at diagnosis. Results: Patients with rectal cancer and a delay o f less than a month between start of symptoms and diagnosis included a significantly larger proportion of Dukes' A tumours than patients wit h a longer delay (p = 0.004). Delay in patients with colonic cancer di d not correlate with stage. Conclusion: A short delay in the diagnosis of rectal cancer was associated with better staging. This could not b e shown for colonic cancer, which may be attributable to its initially vague symptoms and to a subgroup of highly malignant tumours with rap idly progressive symptoms.