A paradox explained? Patients with delayed diagnosis of symptomatic colorectal cancer have good prognosis

Objective To investigate the impact on outcome of delay between referral and diagnosis in colorectal cancer (CRC). Patients and methods One hundred and fifty‐four patients were studied after excluding from a consecutive series of 411 with CRC, those with factors known to affect the prognosis that may also have affected the speed of diagnosis. These were advanced disease, emergency admission or surgery, referral with diagnosis already made, and tumours treated by colonoscopic polypectomy alone. Possible causative factors were compared between early and late diagnosis groups. For assessment of symptom risk, the Department of Health criteria were used. Results Forty‐four patients had Referral to Diagnosis Interval (RDI) ≥ 50 days (‘Late’), and 110 had RDI