One in five patients diagnosed with classical Hodgkin lymphoma (CHL) suffers delays in diagnosis, according to a new study which examined the relationship between markers of advanced disease, emergency admission and survival following a diagnosis.
The study was set within a sociodemographically representative UK population-based patient cohort of approximately 4 million. Patients were tracked through their care pathways and linked to national data obtained from Hospital Episode Statistics and deaths.
A total of 971 patients with CHL newly diagnosed between 1 September 2004-31 August 2015 were followed until 18 December 2018.
Within the cohort, median age at the time of diagnosis was 41.5 (range, 0-96) years. More than half (55.2%) were male, 31.2 per cent had stage IV disease, 43.0 per cent had a moderate- to high- or high-risk prognostic score and 18.7 per cent were admitted via the emergency route.
Those presenting as an emergency had more advanced disease and poorer three-year survival (relative survival, 68.4% vs 89.8%; P<.01). However, after adjusting for clinically important prognostic factors, no difference in survival remained.
Presenting the findings in BJGP Open, the authors said the findings suggest that CHL survival could be increased by around 4 per cent if the cancer in patients who presented as an emergency had been detected at the same point as in other patients.
