title: Time elapsed between the first symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of oral cancer patients in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  One of the most important objectives of a public health service is early diagnosis of disease, which provides a better prognosis and reduction in treatment cost. We investigated the delay for diagnosis and treatment of oral cancer in a public hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred eighty records of patients who attended for their first consultation in the department of head and neck surgery in a public hospital from Belo Horizonte-Brazil, between the period from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2001 were analysed. The following variables were analyzed: gender, age, evolution time (ET), time elapsed from referral to hospital and first appointment (RT), time elapsed from first appointment and treatment (TT), total time elapsed from first noticing the lesion and starting treatment (TTE), sites and staging.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results for males and females were, respectively: mean age = 57.9 and 60.8 years; ET= 169.4 and 215.4 days; RT = 27.9 and 40.6 days; TT = 40.9 and 44.9 days; TTE = 207.9 and 263.8 days. No correlation was observed between age and TTE for either gender. Women presented the highest mean values for ET and TTE (p<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It was concluded that public health policy should be developed to address the excessively long time lapsed between diagnosis and treatment as well as improve public health education programs to promote early oral cancer identification.
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. enabdo@uai.com.br
authors.forename: Evandro Neves
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Abdo
authors.forename: Arnaldo de Almeida
authors.initials: Ade A
authors.lastname: Garrocho
authors.forename: Alvimar Afonso
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Barbosa
authors.forename: Enaldo Lopes de
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: Lyzio
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Franca-Filho
authors.forename: Sérgio Luiz Coelho
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Negri
authors.forename: Isabela Almeida
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Pordeus
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001938:Brazil; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D013997:Time Factors