Article
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Delays in Initial Referral, Diagnosis and Treatment in Children with Cancer
Version 1
: Received: 8 September 2018 / Approved: 10 September 2018 / Online: 10 September 2018 (08:29:35 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 9 May 2020 / Approved: 10 May 2020 / Online: 10 May 2020 (18:21:17 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 9 May 2020 / Approved: 10 May 2020 / Online: 10 May 2020 (18:21:17 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Abstract
Background: Cancer has been one of the most critical health problems during the past decades which require serious consideration, especially in developing countries. Methods: 80 parents of the children with different types of cancers were studied via both questionnaire and person-to-person interview after announcing their informed consent. Results: The highest delay in patients' initial referral was due to the following factors: lack of attention or ignoring the first symptoms, delay in referring to the physician, low economic status and even lack of family support for the patient. In addition, visiting several doctors after the initial diagnosis, uncertainty about the first proposed method, and high cost of treatment can be mentioned as the main causes of delays in the start of treatment. Conclusion: Education plays an important role in identifying the signs of cancer. In addition, proper relationship and cooperation between the health system and physicians as well as provision of adequate information to patients could lead to the long-term cooperation of these patients in continuing their treatment.
Keywords
cancer; delay in referral; children; delay in diagnosis; delay in treatment
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Oncology and Oncogenics
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Commenter: Mostafa Dianati
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Please change "person-to-person interview" to "a face-to-face interview".
Change "80 parents of the children" to Eighty percent of children (OR participants)".
To present your results well, it is recommended to use some statistics (odds ratio, and 95% CI, which was obtained by logistic regression model).
The first sentence of your conclusion is not in line with the study findings (Education plays an important role in identifying the signs of cancer.). My recommendation is to revise this section.