A community study of delay in presenting with signs of melanoma to medical practitioners

Melanoma detection in British Columbia, Canada

“…6,36 We observed that previous experience with MM or knowledge of this disease did not significantly affect delay times as one may intuitively expect. This may reflect a discrepancy between MM knowledge and behavior.…”

“…Other reports of physician delay times have varied from less than 1 month in 74.7% of patients, 11 to more than 4 months in 13% of patients, 20 and the most frequent reasons for delay in diagnosis were patient factors including individuals who thought their lesions were insignificant or that they would heal without medical intervention. 6,23 Although our sample size was not large enough to stratify data by histologic type, delay times may be substantially increased for MM at certain anatomic sites. Franke et al 24 noted patient delay was 4.8 years for plantar MM.…”

“…However, a recent population-based survey found that 68% of people delayed or did not seek medical attention for a lesion with possible signs of MM. 6 Patient delay in seeking care for cancer symptoms has been attributed to lack of knowledge and fear or denial. [7][8][9] One study showed that patient knowledge of MM signs and symptoms contributed to shorter delays in diagnosis, 10 whereas others [11][12][13] demonstrated that a lack of MM knowledge was associated with greater tumor thickness.…”

Delayed treatment and continued growth of nonmelanoma skin cancer

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Patients may misunderstand the signs and symptoms of their lesions, which they consider unimportant, or likely to go away. They may also experience fear or denial.…”

“…Virtually all past studies on delays in skin cancer treatment have examined melanoma 1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][11][12][13]16 rather than NMSC. Much of the prior work elucidated only the psychologic problems (emotions and fears) that prevent patients from timely management of their tumors; physical, social, and financial obstacles have received little scrutiny.…”