The Experience in Nicaragua: Childhood Leukemia in Low Income Countries—The Main Cause of Late Diagnosis May Be “Medical Delay”

Table 1

Time intervals from first symptoms to diagnosis of leukemia.

	Managua	Monza	𝑃 value
Lag time from first symptoms to diagnosis (days)
Median, (IQR)	29 (18–44)	14 (9–24)	^#𝑃<0.01
ALL	29,5 (18–45)	15 (9–27)	^#𝑃<0.01
AML	21 (18–39)	9 (6–20)	^#𝑃=0.03
Patient delay (days)
Median, (IQR)	7 (1,5–15)	5 (1–13)	^#𝑃=0.27
ALL	7 (1,5–15)	5,5 (1–13)	^#𝑃=0.5
AML	6 (3–11)	4 (2–13)	^#𝑃=0.9
Physician delay (days)
Median, (IQR)	16.5 (7–33,5)	7 (2–4)	^#𝑃<0.01
ALL	16 (7–33)	8 (2–15)	^#𝑃<0.01
AML	18 (6–33)	3 (1–6)	^#𝑃=0.03
Lag time to diagnosis: “0–30 days” and “>30 days” groups
Lag time to diagnosis “>30 days” (frequencies)	37 (45.7%)	15 (18.5%)	° 𝑃<0.01
Lag time to diagnosis “0–30 days” (frequencies)	44 (54.3%)	66 (81.5%)

° : Chi-square test; ^#: Mann-Whitney/Wilcoxon Two-Sample Test; ALL: acute lymphoblastic leukemia; AML: acute myeloid leukemia.