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Delay in cutaneous melanoma diagnosis: Sequence analyses from suspicion to diagnosis in 211 patients

Advanced melanoma is an incurable disease with complex and expensive treatments. The best approach to prevent melanoma at advanced stages is an early diagnosis. A knowledge of factors associated with the process of detecting cutaneous melanomas and the reasons for delays in diagnosis is essential fo...

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Autores principales: Xavier, Marcus H.S.B., Drummond-Lage, Ana P., Baeta, Cyntia, Rocha, Lorena, Almeida, Alessandra M., Wainstein, Alberto J.A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Wolters Kluwer Health 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4979809/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27495055
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000004396
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author Xavier, Marcus H.S.B.
Drummond-Lage, Ana P.
Baeta, Cyntia
Rocha, Lorena
Almeida, Alessandra M.
Wainstein, Alberto J.A.
author_facet Xavier, Marcus H.S.B.
Drummond-Lage, Ana P.
Baeta, Cyntia
Rocha, Lorena
Almeida, Alessandra M.
Wainstein, Alberto J.A.
author_sort Xavier, Marcus H.S.B.
collection PubMed
description Advanced melanoma is an incurable disease with complex and expensive treatments. The best approach to prevent melanoma at advanced stages is an early diagnosis. A knowledge of factors associated with the process of detecting cutaneous melanomas and the reasons for delays in diagnosis is essential for the improvement of the secondary prevention of the disease. Identify sociodemographic, individual, and medical aspects related to cutaneous melanoma diagnosis delay. Interviews evaluated the knowledge of melanoma, signals, symptoms, persons who were suspected, delays in seeking medical attention, physician's deferrals, and related factors of 211 patients. Melanomas were self-discovered in 41.7% of the patients; healthcare providers detected 29.9% of patients and others detected 27%. The main component in delay was patient-related. Only 31.3% of the patients knew that melanoma was a serious skin cancer, and most thought that the pigmented lesion was not important, causing a delay in seeking medical assistance. Patients (36.4%) reported a wait interval of more than 6 months from the onset of an observed change in a pigmented lesion to the first visit to a physician. The delay interval from the first physician visit to a histopathological diagnosis was shorter (<1 month) in 55.5% of patients. Improper treatments without a histopathological confirmation occurred in 14.7% of patients. A professional delay was related to both inappropriate treatments performed without histopathological confirmation (P = 0.003) and long requirements for medical referrals (P < 0.001). A deficient knowledge in the population regarding melanoma and physicians’ misdiagnoses regarding suspicious lesions contributed to delays in diagnosis.
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spelling pubmed-49798092016-08-18 Delay in cutaneous melanoma diagnosis: Sequence analyses from suspicion to diagnosis in 211 patients Xavier, Marcus H.S.B. Drummond-Lage, Ana P. Baeta, Cyntia Rocha, Lorena Almeida, Alessandra M. Wainstein, Alberto J.A. Medicine (Baltimore) 4000 Advanced melanoma is an incurable disease with complex and expensive treatments. The best approach to prevent melanoma at advanced stages is an early diagnosis. A knowledge of factors associated with the process of detecting cutaneous melanomas and the reasons for delays in diagnosis is essential for the improvement of the secondary prevention of the disease. Identify sociodemographic, individual, and medical aspects related to cutaneous melanoma diagnosis delay. Interviews evaluated the knowledge of melanoma, signals, symptoms, persons who were suspected, delays in seeking medical attention, physician's deferrals, and related factors of 211 patients. Melanomas were self-discovered in 41.7% of the patients; healthcare providers detected 29.9% of patients and others detected 27%. The main component in delay was patient-related. Only 31.3% of the patients knew that melanoma was a serious skin cancer, and most thought that the pigmented lesion was not important, causing a delay in seeking medical assistance. Patients (36.4%) reported a wait interval of more than 6 months from the onset of an observed change in a pigmented lesion to the first visit to a physician. The delay interval from the first physician visit to a histopathological diagnosis was shorter (<1 month) in 55.5% of patients. Improper treatments without a histopathological confirmation occurred in 14.7% of patients. A professional delay was related to both inappropriate treatments performed without histopathological confirmation (P = 0.003) and long requirements for medical referrals (P < 0.001). A deficient knowledge in the population regarding melanoma and physicians’ misdiagnoses regarding suspicious lesions contributed to delays in diagnosis. Wolters Kluwer Health 2016-08-07 /pmc/articles/PMC4979809/ /pubmed/27495055 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000004396 Text en Copyright © 2016 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
spellingShingle 4000
Xavier, Marcus H.S.B.
Drummond-Lage, Ana P.
Baeta, Cyntia
Rocha, Lorena
Almeida, Alessandra M.
Wainstein, Alberto J.A.
Delay in cutaneous melanoma diagnosis: Sequence analyses from suspicion to diagnosis in 211 patients
title Delay in cutaneous melanoma diagnosis: Sequence analyses from suspicion to diagnosis in 211 patients
title_full Delay in cutaneous melanoma diagnosis: Sequence analyses from suspicion to diagnosis in 211 patients
title_fullStr Delay in cutaneous melanoma diagnosis: Sequence analyses from suspicion to diagnosis in 211 patients
title_full_unstemmed Delay in cutaneous melanoma diagnosis: Sequence analyses from suspicion to diagnosis in 211 patients
title_short Delay in cutaneous melanoma diagnosis: Sequence analyses from suspicion to diagnosis in 211 patients
title_sort delay in cutaneous melanoma diagnosis: sequence analyses from suspicion to diagnosis in 211 patients
topic 4000
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4979809/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27495055
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000004396
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