Fatal Delay

Specialists contend that most types of cancer, if caught early enough, can be cured.* The big problem is spotting cancer in time. Every year, 30,000 people in the U.S. discover that they have cancer; at least one-third discover it so late that they are doomed to die within the year.

Are patients at fault for this fatal delay? Last week two experts admitted that in far too many cases, late diagnosis of cancer is not the patient's but the doctor's fault.

Drs. John E. Leach and Guy F. Robbins of Manhattan's Memorial Hospital questioned some 50 cancer patients. They found that 28%, when they first went to a doctor, had not had their ailment diagnosed correctly. The investigators were shocked to learn, furthermore, that half of the women patients with breast tumors were advised by their doctors to ignore the tumor "if it doesn't bother you."

Thanks to anti-cancer propaganda, the public is becoming aware of the importance of prompt examination (the proportion of cancer patients who now delay going to a doctor--32%--is much smaller than surveys showed nine years ago). But doctors seem to be even less alert. The Memorial Hospital experts conclude: "The patient is seeking help earlier but the physician does not appear to be taking advantage of the opportunity."

Their recommendations: doctors should take any possible cancer symptoms seriously; a general practitioner who has any suspicion of possible cancer should lose no time in referring the patient to an expert. "The treatment of cancer is as much an emergency as a fracture, and much more important to the patient's life."

* By operation or by X-ray or radium treatment.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.