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

Table 3

Literature notes about studies dealing with lag time from first symptoms to diagnosis in childhood leukemia.

	Study	Diagnostic delay, median (IQR), days			Population diagnosed after 30 days, %	Characteristic of population
		Patient delay	Physician delay	Lag time
HIC (countries with GNP per capita income of $12.196 or more according to the World Bank Classification)	Klein Geltink et al. [10] Canada	7 (1–19)	1 (0–11)	NA*	NA*	826 patients aged 0–15 (1995–2000)
	Thulesius et al. [12] Sweden	7 (0–91)	0 (0–63)	21 (0–105)	24%	25 patients aged 0–16 (1984–1995)
	Saha et al. [11] United Kingdom	NA*	NA*	21 (7–224)	NA*	65 patients aged 0–15 (1982–1990)
	Flores et al. [9] U.S.A.	NA*	NA*	NA*	18,7%	123 patients aged 0-20 (1976–1984)
	Dang-Tan et al. [6] Canada	8 (1–21)	3 (1–14)	19 (9–36)	NA*	944 patients aged 0–19 (1995–2000)
	De Angelis et al. (this paper) Italy	5 (1–13)	7 (2–4)	16.5 (7–33,5)	18,5%	81 patients aged 0–16 (2006–2009)
LIC	Fajardo-Gutiérrez et al. [8] Mexico	NA*	NA*	NA*	47%	1676 patients aged 0–14 (1981–1992)
	B. O. James et al. [14] Nigeria	NA*	NA*	56 (14–252)	NA*	9 patients aged 1–14 (2006–2008)
	Stefan et al. [15] South Africa	4 (NA*)	22 (NA*)	31 (NA*)	NA*	63 patients aged 0–15 (2000–2009)
	De Angelis et al. (this paper) Nicaragua	7 (1,5–15)	16.5 (7–33,5)	29 (18–44)	45,7%	81 patients aged 0–16 (2006–2009)

*NA: not available.