• M Bernal Pérez, F J Gómez Bernal, and G J Gómez Bernal.
• Aten Primaria. 2001 Feb 15; 27 (2): 798579-85.

ObjectiveA reduction in the time used to be able to diagnose an illness influences not only the well being of the patient but also the quality of the medical care. In this work, we have studied the amount of time needed to diagnose cancer.Material And MethodDescriptive methods have been used: average, median, mode and standard deviation in order to know how long it takes to diagnose and treat cancer. The data have been taken from a hospital register.ResultsThe longest time elapsed between the periods appears to be the one between the first symptoms and the date the diagnosis is made, which has been calculated to be 96 days on average. The remaining time periods studied showed a time lapse of about 26 days on median.DiscussionThe median has been taken as the measurement chosen to assess these time periods, which have been notably reduced in the last decade.ConclusionsThe performance of the primary care doctor is of great importance, as he is normally the one who is faced with the precocious symptoms, as well as with the risk factors that persist in the patients. This doctor is therefore the one who can initiate both the early diagnosis and the medical education of the patients.

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