Assessment of time intervals in the pathway to oral cancer diagnosis in north-westerm Spain. Relative contribution of patient interval

Background Despite continuous advances in diagnosis and therapy, oral cancers are mostly diagnosed at advanced stages with minor survival improvements in the last two decades. Both phenomena have been attributed to delays in the diagnosis. This study aims at quantifying the time elapsed until definitive diagnosis in these patients and the patient interval’s contribution. Material and Methods A hospital-based, ambispective, observational study was undertaken on incident cases with a pathological diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma recruited during 2015 at the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery services of CHUAC (A Coruña) and POVISA (Vigo) hospitals. Results 74 consecutive oral cancer pati…