Prolonged Diagnostic Intervals as Marker of Missed Diagnostic Opportunities in Bladder and Kidney Cancer Patients with Alarm Features: A Longitudinal Linked Data Study

摘要

In England, patients with alarm features of cancer should be assessed by a specialist within 14 days based on national guidelines. However, it is not known how quickly these patients are actually diagnosed. We therefore examined how quickly patients who met these fast-track referral criteria were actually diagnosed, using bladder and kidney cancer patients as exemplars. We found that of the patients who qualified for fast-track referral, more than one-quarter did not receive a timely diagnosis. Those with recurrent urinary tract infections, of female sex and in the extremes of age, were most likely to have a non-timely diagnosis. Our findings suggest that opportunities exist to improve timely referral in patients with bladder and kidney cancer.