BACKGROUND: Since the end of the 1980s, the magnitude of survival prolongation or mortality reduction has not been the same for adolescents and young adults (ayas) with @entity5 as for their older and younger counterparts. Precise reasons for those observations are unknown, but the differences have been attributed in part to delays in diagnosis and treatment. In 2003 at the Jewish General Hospital, we developed the first Canadian multidisciplinary aya oncology clinic to better serve this unique @entity1 population. The aim of the present study was to develop an approach to quantify diagnosis delays in our aya @entity1 and to study survival in relation to the observed delay. METHODS: In a retrospective chart review, we collected information about delays, treatment efficacy, and obstacles to treatment for @entity1 seen at our aya clinic. RESULTS: From symptom onset, median time to first health care contact was longer for @entity1 and young @entity1 (62 days) than for @entity1 and young @entity1 (6 days). Median time from symptom onset to treatment was 173 days; time from first health care contact to diagnosis was the largest contributor to that duration. Delays in diagnosis were shorter for @entity1 who initially presented to the emergency room, but compared with @entity1 whose first health contact was of another type, @entity1 presenting to the emergency room were 3 times more likely to die from their disease. CONCLUSIONS: Delays in diagnosis are frequently reported in ayas with @entity5 , but the duration of the delay was unrelated to survival in our sample. Application of this approach to larger prospective samples is warranted to better understand the relation between treatment delay and survival in ayas-and in other @entity5 @entity1 groups.

Quantifying treatment delays in adolescents and young adults with XXXX at McGill University.

@entity5 :: ('MESH:D009369', 'Disease') :: ['cancer'] @entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['women', 'patients', 'patient', 'girls', 'boys', 'men']
@entity5 :: (MESH:D009369,Disease) :: ['cancer']
