Tiempo transcurrido entre primer contacto médico e inicio del tratamiento oncológico, en pacientes pediátricos de SOLCA-Cuenca, período 2009-2018

Abstract

Background: Cancer is the main cause of death in children and adolescents around the world. About 300,000 patients aged 0-19 years are diagnosed per year. In developed countries, it is observed that the time required from the patient visits a doctor for the first time for cancer symptoms to the start of treatment is shorter compared to developing countries. Objective: To know the elapsed time from the first medical contact to the beginning of oncological treatment in pediatric patients of the SOLCA-Cuenca Cancer Institute in the period 2009-2018. Methodology: A descriptive observational cross-sectional study was carried out. The medical records of the patients were analyzed and the data of the variables age, gender, origin, residence, type of cancer of the pediatric patients, elapsed time between the first medical contact and oncological treatment, the reference unit and the first medical contact were obtained. The universe and the sample were the same, and were made up of patients diagnosed with cancer who met the inclusion criteria. The data was processed and analyzed using descriptive statistics through the PSPP 1.2.0 program. Results: The elapsed time from the first medical contact to the beginning of the treatment required a minimum of 1 day and a maximum of 276 days with an average of 41 days. Conclusions: The elapsed time to start treatment from the beginning of symptoms was less than 30 days, a condition that was met in 50% of the patients in this study. This period coincides with that recommended by the World Health Organization.