Rapid oncological diagnosis of lung cancer patients - specific facility experience

Lung cancer is the most common type of tumour in the world. In Poland, 1/6 of oncological patients are diagnosed with lung cancer. Similarly, it is the most common cause of death that affects those patients. Lack of clinical signs at the early stage as well as the absence of effective screening diagnosis, lead to 80% of patients being diagnosed at the 3rd or 4th stage of the disease. In order to improve the diagnostic procedure by the public health service, an organisational solution called the Rapid Oncological Therapy has been introduced. The introduction of the programme caused criticism of the medical community, and state control authorities showed irregularities in its functioning in medical centers. Its aim was to assess the process among lung cancer patients who were hospitalised in our center during the period of 9 months.