Why so late? Presentation delay in locally advanced breast cancer (LABC)

Health Care Strategies to Promote Earlier Presentation of Symptomatic Breast Cancer: Perspectives of Women and Family Physicians

“…In quantitative and qualitative studies to date, a number of potential risk factors for delayed presentation of breast cancer have been identified 1,2,4,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] , including older age at diagnosis 4 , fear of cancer 11,13,14 , symptom other than a breast lump 2,9,10,14 , competing life demands 13 , belief in alternative therapies [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] , lower level of education 17 , spiritual beliefs 17,19 , and African American or Hispanic descent 17 . Other factors include failure to disclose concerns to a friend or relative 2,9 , associated anxiety or depressive symptoms 19 , reservations about seeing the family physician, and presenting to the family physician with a non-breast problem 2 .…”

Identifying barriers to early presentation in patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) in Northern Singapore: Qualitative study

“…A delay in presentation and treatment is costly for the patient with a recent study by Ho et al [ 4 ] indicating that delayed treatment of more than 90 days post diagnosis has been associated with poorer survival outcomes compared to patients who received treatment within 30 days post-diagnosis. Researchers have attempted to shed light behind the reasons for delayed presentation and explore strategies to tackle this problem [ 5 , 6 ] with earlier studies finding that delayed presentation often arise from misconceptions about the disease pertaining to screening and treatment. A study by Lim et al, [ 7 ] that explored the reasons for late presentation in women with breast cancer from both Singapore and Malaysia found poor symptom interpretation, fear of diagnosis, misinformation from online resources and preference for alternative and traditional medicine to be the main reasons.…”