Study finds that 9% of patients had delay in diagnosis.(breast cancer)(Brief Article)

2002 JUL 18 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Among patients with breast cancer, 9% had a delay in diagnosis, with inappropriate reassurance that a breast mass is benign without taking a biopsy, the leading cause of physician-related delays, according to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

William H. Goodson III, MD, and Dan H. Moore II, PhD, of the California Pacific Medical Research Institute in San Francisco, evaluated the causes of physician delay in diagnosis of breast cancer in 435 women who were treated for 454 breast cancers. They studied patients in California where 75% of women age 40 years and older have routine mammography at least every 2 years. The researchers tested whether increased reliance on screening mammography has affected causes of physician delay in the diagnosis of breast cancer. The authors wrote that understanding the sources of physician delay could assist efforts to expedite diagnosis.

"Despite widespread screening mammography, inappropriate reassurance that a palpable mass is benign, without biopsy, remains the leading cause of physician-delayed diagnosis of breast cancer, affecting 5% ...