Association of diagnostic delays to survival in lung cancer: single center experience

<b>Background:</b> Rapid diagnostics and treatment approaches have been applied in many countries to enhance patient satisfaction, but it is unknown whether this leads to improvements in survival. <b>Material and methods:</b> Symptoms initiation, referral, and investigations and their timing, and survival were retrospectively collected from all the patients diagnosed for lung cancer at Oulu University Hospital 2015–2016 (<i>n</i> = 221). Correlation of treatment delays to survival was evaluated in different categories and by tumor stages. <b>Results:</b> Survival analysis showed no statistical difference between patients having below or above median time for the whole clinical pathway (from symptoms to treatment). Subsection analysis of the clinical pathway and division of patients by stage showed improved survival for patients having longer than median times in referral to diagnosis (<i>p</i> = .03) and diagnosis to treatment (<i>p</i> p <b>Conclusion:</b> Longer time on diagnostic work-up of lung cancer does not worsen the survival suggesting that fast-track approaches might not improve lung cancer outcomes.