Patient Delay Vs Professional Delay For Delay In Diagnosis In Oral Cancer- Systematic Review

Oral carcinomas are one of the most common cancers across the world with a high mortality rate. Delayed diagnosis is one of the main concern that hampers the success of the treatment. The delay can be summarised as Patient delay and Professional delay. A review was undertaken to understand various reasons for delay in the diagnosis of oral cancer and also to find out which factors are responsible for the delay. Studies that compared patient delay factors and professional factors are included in the review. Objective: To assess the reason for delay in the diagnosis of oral cancer and which among patient delay or professional delay is responsible for delayed diagnosis of oral cancer. Eligibility criteria: Studies including delay in diagnosis of oral cancer across the world due to patient and professional factors, studies published in English language and studies published from January 2008 to December 2018. Data source: Electronic data search of Pub Med, Google Scholar, HINARI, IndMed, EBSCO Host, Institutional Library and manual search of various journals. Two reviewers independently extracted the data. Any disagreement was sorted by consensus with the third author. Results: Four studies were selected for the review. One of the main reasons for patient delay was s financial barrier and for professional delay it was referring to the specialist. Two studies attributed the delay due to patient and the other two studies due to professional reasons. Conclusion: There is no clear-cut answer in order to contribute the delay to the patient or professional. Limited heterogeneous studies, makes it difficult to arrive at a conclusion.