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Cancer waiting times: what is the value of a lymphoma waiting time?
S A H Savage1, H A Wotherspoon, D Pentland
1West of Scotland Managed Clinical Network for Blood Cancer Ward 38, Floor 5, Surgical Block, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 84 Castle Street, Glasgow, G4 OSF. shirleyanne.savage@ggc.scot.nhs.uk
Background And Aim:
Waiting times for patients with lymphoma have been reported across the United Kingdom since 2005. Lymphoma however, is not a single disease but a wide spectrum of lymphoid tumours that range from the most malignant to the most indolent, from highly curable to incurable. We now question the value of the current system that reports lymphoma waiting time on a quarterly basis and makes no allowance for the different types of lymphoma.
Method:
Four hundred and sixty nine cases of lymphoma were registered in the west of Scotland in 2004. Complete datasets were available on 428. Patient demographic data, subtypes of lymphoma, biopsy site and referral urgency data were linked to the waiting times analysis for 2004 for the three subtypes, Lymphoma (HL), Diffuse Large B Cell (DLBC) and follicular Non Hodgkin Lymp (NHL).
Results:
Patients with HL were younger, more likely to receive urgent referral and have a diagnosis made from neck node biopsy than the other two groups. Patients with DLBC NHL however had the shortest interval between presentation and the start of treatment and were subsequently more likely to receive treatment within 62 days than patients with either follicular NHL (p < 0.001) or HL (p < 0.05).
Conclusion:
Lymphoma subtype is a major factor determining the rate of progress from presentation to the start of treatment, hence the waiting time.
