[Interval between initial symptoms and first treatment in patients with head-neck tumors]

We investigated the kinds of first symptoms and their delay in diagnosis by patients and physicians until the beginning of therapy in 92 patients with carcinomas of the head and neck. We were interested in the time from onset of first symptoms to the first consultation with a physician, the first contact with an ENT specialist and to admission to our hospital. We found no difference in the time of delay for first symptoms had by patients who consulted the family doctor first and those patients who were seen by an ENT specialist first. This may be due to almost all family doctors in Thuringia being specialists for general medicine. The patient was the decisive factor in delaying medical evaluation of first symptoms. Patients with laryngeal cancers had a twice as long interval between the first symptom and the initial consultation with a physician than patients with other cancers of the head and neck, since these latter tumors had clinically concerning symptoms in most cases. In patients with better education we found a longer interval between the onset of the first symptoms and the first consultation with a doctor. We think that better knowledge by patients about the first symptoms of a cancer of the head and neck and improved training in ENT diseases for specialists of general medicine will improve the overall rate for early detection of these tumors.