Delay in Diagnosis of Stomach Cancer Patients Attending a Tertiary CareHospital in Kashmir: A Hospital Based Cross Sectional Study

ABSTRACT

Introduction: cancers is associated with a favourable outcome. Stomach cancer is one of the most common cancers of gastrointestinal tract. Majority patients visit physicians in developed stages. To evaluate theObjective: reporting pattern of stomach cancer patients living in Kashmir valley in order to determine the median time of delay from the beginning of symptoms to diagnosis. Total 116 proven stomach cancer patientsMethod: were evaluated for the pattern of presentation at endoscopy laboratory of Super Speciality Hospital, Shireen Bagh Kashmir from April 2019 to September 2020. In this study, the mean age (SD) of participantsResults: was 60.22 ± (11.90) years. Majority of the participants (69.8%) were males. Cases were predominantly from the rural area (58%).Only 15.5 % of the cases were diagnosed within one month of their symptoms while as 3.4% of the cases had a total delay of more than 12 months. The study found a considerable total delay in the diagnosis of stomach cancer. The mean of the patient delay was 45.6 days. The median total delay was 20 weeks. Since stomach cancer has high mortality and morbidity rates associated, creatingConclusion: awareness among the population and training of physicians regarding timely referral of patients seems important