Concealed breast cancer causes delayed treatment

BMJ 1998;316:1744 ( 6 June )

Letters

Concealed breast cancer causes delayed treatment

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EDITOR $---$ Nosarti et al suggested that delay by patients accounts for a large part of the time till treatment for breast canceris started.¹ We agree that this delay is an important problem;it is not often analysed as policies are targeted at earlier treatmentof small lesions. Iversen et al considered a delay of eight weeksby patients to be a challenge to health services.²

We investigated the incidence of concealed breast cancer at Hartlepool General Hospital between January 1988 and December1992 and are following up patients for five years after the initialdiagnosis. We defined a breast carcinoma as a concealed cancerwhen the patient had been aware of a breast lump for six monthsor more before seeking medical advice. We retrospectively identifiedall patients with breast cancer through pathology records. Fortyeight of the 170 patients with newly diagnosed disease had concealedcarcinomas (mean (SE) time of . . . [Full text of this article]