Thank you very much for the opportunity to present today. The following are my disclosures. Survival for lung cancer is increased with localized disease, but only a small portion of patients are diagnosed at early stages. We wanted to explore factors that may contribute to longer or delayed diagnosis times. We utilize self-reported data from patients that's submitted to GoToFoundation for Lung Cancer's Lung Cancer Registry. Patients or caregivers can submit data to the registry by completing online surveys covering a variety of topics, from diagnosis up to quality of life. Participants submit a baseline survey when joining, and they're asked to submit periodic follow-up surveys to allow for longitudinal data collection. In the current analysis, we looked at factors associated with time to diagnosis. In a subset of 500 patients that self-reported experiencing symptoms prior to their lung cancer diagnosis, and that were also able to report the length of time between their initial presentation and their ultimate diagnosis with lung cancer. Most patients in this data subset were between 50 and 70 years of age, female, located in the United States, racially white, and diagnosed with stage four disease. Most patients reported initially presenting to a primary care provider for their symptoms. However, those that initially presented to an emergency room or urgent care provider were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer in three months or less. Patients that reported more than three months from presentation to diagnosis were significantly more likely to report certain symptoms. These included cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, weight loss, and wheezing. Also, patients with a time to diagnosis of more than three months were also significantly more likely to report receiving treatment for a non-lung cancer condition prior to their ultimate diagnosis with lung cancer. In particular, prior treatment for allergies and asthma were significantly associated with a time to diagnosis of more than three months, while prior treatment for bronchitis or pneumonia were not. In summary, presenting to an emergency room or urgent care provider was associated with a shorter time to diagnosis. Also, experiencing certain symptoms, as well as receiving initial treatment for other non-lung cancer conditions, including allergies and asthma, were associated with a longer time to diagnosis. This may suggest that the care setting or symptom severity may impact time to diagnosis. Also, that initial treatment for more common chronic conditions, such as allergies or asthma, may be a feature in cases with longer diagnosis time. We believe that increased awareness and education about lung cancer symptoms and presentation, especially in less traditional groups that are not thought of as being as much risk for lung cancer, especially in the primary care setting, may increase timely diagnosis. This is especially important given recent observations of increasing rates of lung cancer in nontraditional groups, such as younger women. Thank you very much.

lung cancer patients

symptom presentation

diagnosis

emergency room

urgent care provider