Fear and loathing slow cancer diagnoses

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We all know what we should do at the first sign of blood in the stool, bloating in the belly or a lump just about anywhere. Early detection is one of the key factors in improved survival from most cancers, and we know these signs should send us scurrying to a doctor’s office.

But a national survey (PDF) by Tower Cancer Research Foundation of 4,402 people shows we don’t do what we know we should do. We stall. We hope the symptom will go away. We worry that our health insurance won’t cover the care, and that we won’t have enough money to pay for what we need.

The survey covered men and women’s attitudes in general about cancer, then asked specific questions of people who had been diagnosed with the disease.

Cancer is the No. 1 health fear of most Americans, the survey found. Nearly 80% of respondents said that they worried that someday they would hear the dreaded diagnosis. Fear of heart disease, HIV and Alzheimer’s make up the remaining 20% of most feared diseases.

Yet, of the 32% of respondents who suspected they had cancer before they were diagnosed with the disease, 52% waited two months to check it out medically; 15% waited one to five years before seeing a doctor.

When asked why, 38% said they hoped the symptoms would just go away; 32% said they procrastinated; 13% said they were afraid of what a doctor would find; and 13% said they did not have medical insurance.

‘Hope, fear, procrastination and lack of medical insurance were all powerful forces preventing people from going to see a doctor,’ says Dr. Solomon Hamburg, president and chief executive officer of the foundation. ‘Those surveyed were cancer survivors but many people who delay going to a doctor for long periods of time for a diagnosis are not as fortunate. Early detection raises the bar considerably on our ability to help those in need.”

Of those who waited and worried, 43% said that if they had known earlier of a place to go for guidance and advice, they would have acted sooner. For starters, here’s the National Cancer Institute site that can answer most of your preliminary questions, with links to further support. So now, that’s one excuse you don’t have.

--Susan Brink