ABSTRACT
MacDonald analyzed data derived from studies of a number of tumor types to determine whether there was a correlation between early diagnosis, defined as a short duration of symptoms, and tumor characteristics associated with good outcomes, such as a limited number of positive lymph nodes or small tumor size. While there was generally a correlation, he observed that within each category there was still a wide range of values. For example, 19% of breast cancer patients with symptoms for less than 1 month had tumors measuring less than 1 cm, but 5% of patients with tumors that had been observed for more than 1 year prior to presentation were also in this size group. The converse was also true. Of the patients with short duration of symptoms, 12% had tumors larger than 5 cm, but even after a delay of more than 1 year, only 22% of the tumors had reached this size.
