All of us have seen patients with diagnosed cancer who have been told that urgent (if not an emergency ) surgery is required. The impression given by the advising physician or surgeon is that any delay in surgical treatment will compromise cure throwing the patient into a veritable state of panic and causing him/her to make desperate demands for immediate surgery. It is entirely reasonable to reduce the time from diagnosis to treatment and unnecessary delays should be obviously be avoided, but is there any reason to create this situation of panic? The essential questions therefore are. Is urgent surgery required?
How long can patients wait from diagnosis to treatment? How much time can elapse before it compromises cure? All cancers once diagnosed need to be staged. The process of staging in lung cancer may be longer than in other types of cancer because the staging process includes a…
