Abstract 48P
Background
Delay of diagnosis is common in patients with sarcoma, however, the factors that impact the delay remain incompletely understood.
Methods
We included patients with newly diagnosed sarcoma who were referred to Stanford sarcoma clinic from August 2022 to December 2023 for establishing care, and excluded patients who were referred for second opinion, or transferred care, or after completing surgery, radiation or both.
Results
Among total of 150 eligible patients (37% had Medicare/Medicaid and 63% had private insurance), approximately 40% of patients did not have a visit with their primary care provider within five weeks after the onset of symptoms (pain, palpable mass, etc.) (median 5 weeks). Among patients who were 18 to 30 years old, more than 40% of patients did not have an imaging study performed within five weeks after their first visit with primary care provider (median 2 weeks), this percentage dropped to 25% for the patients who were 30-50 years old (median 1 week), and less than 20% among patients who were older than 50 years (median 1 week). Among 79 patients who had high-grade sarcoma, more than 40% of patients with high-grade sarcoma did not have a visit with their primary care provider within five weeks after the onset of symptoms (pain, palpable mass, etc.) (median 5 weeks), and approximately 20% of the patients did not have their first imaging study performed within five weeks after their visit (median 2 weeks). For all patients, approximately 95% of patients were seen in the sarcoma clinic within five weeks after the referral to sarcoma clinic was initiated. There was no significant difference between insurance type or sex.
Conclusions
Significant percentage of patients with newly diagnosed sarcoma, including those with high-grade sarcoma, did not have an imaging study performed within five weeks after the initial visit with primary care physician, especially the AYA patients who were 18-30 years old.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
Stanford University.
Funding
Stanford University.
Disclosure
M. Pan: Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Board: Aadi Bioscience, Boehringer Ingelheim. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.