Diagnostic delay and survival in squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity

Abstract

The aim of this thesis was to identify the magnitude of the time intervals that define the pathway of the oral cancer patient from the beginning of the symptoms until diagnosis, and treatment, and to evaluate their impact on patients´ survival. For this purpose, we designed an observational survival study, with an ambispective component. In our study, the hospital interval was a relevant interval in the oral cancer patients´ pathway to treatment, representing a fourth of the overall interval, and showing a counterintuitive association, where those patients with short hospital intervals had significantly higher mortality, due to the waiting time paradox. Also, the overall time interval has shown a non-monotonic association with oral cancer mortality.