The first symptoms of cancer and patienst behaviours. How long the patients delay the visits to the doctor and where they look for a medical information

Introduction: The number of cancer cases is increasing every year. A medical technology, which helps in the early detection of cancer, changes dynamically, and more and more effective therapies are introduced. Nevertheless, a mortality from cancer is not decreasing, which may suggest an another reason of such a situation, including nonmedical factors.

The aim of the study: To examine the period of time from first symptoms to appointment to a doctor and to explore relationships with demographic and psychosocial factors with such behaviors.

Material and method: 101 cancer pts were participated in the study, including 60 women (median 57 years, average 58 years, SD = 10.46 years) and 41 men (median 60 years, average 60.54 years, SD = 10.10 years), who filled out the survey questionnaire.

Results: The results show that 60% of people visited a doctor within 1 month, but in the remaining group even every fifth patient decided to go to a doctor only after 6 months. A dependence was observed in the period of time to first visit, when a usage of the Internet, alternative therapies, as well as a gender and a place of residence were analyzed. The most common source of information about alarming symptoms were newspapers and magazines.

Conclusions: The results show many areas where through educational and motivational activities, we can still shorten the time from the first symptoms to diagnosis and improve treatment outcomes of cancer.