Is Early Screening for Bone Cancer Important?

There's a general assumption that a delay in identifying cancer leads to an earlier death. The belief is that the duration of symptoms is longer when the diagnosis is delayed. But studies don't support this idea. In fact, for some cancers, the opposite is true.

For example, a short duration of symptoms with bladder and lung cancer is linked with decreased patient survival. What about soft tissues and bone sarcomas? Sarcoma refers to any cancer that starts in the connective or supportive tissue. This can include bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, blood vessels, and any other soft tissue.

In this study, researchers try to answer the following question. Does the length of symptoms before diagnosis affect patient survival? Information on over 600 patients with bone or soft tissue sarcoma was fed into a computer and analyzed.

Data included how long symptoms were present before the diagnosis was made. The size of the tumor at the time of diagnosis was also included. The researchers looked at the location of the tumor. The presence of metastases (cancer spread) was noted.

The authors report the following findings:

But patients with metastases had a higher rate of death

Younger age at the time of diagnosis was linked with better chance of survival. Factors other than length of symptom duration are more important in predicting the result. Some cancers just aren't curable. Others are curable no matter how long the symptoms have been present.

References: Bruce T. Rougraff, MD, et al. Does Length of Symptoms Before Diagnosis of Sarcoma Affect Patient Survival? In Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. September 2007. Vol. 462. Pp. 181-189.

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