%0 Journal Article %T Diagnosis delay in Libyan female breast cancer %A Eramah Ermiah %A Fathi Abdalla %A Abdelbaset Buhmeida %A Entesar Larbesh %A Seppo Pyrh£¿nen %A Yrj£¿ Collan %J BMC Research Notes %D 2012 %I BioMed Central %R 10.1186/1756-0500-5-452 %X 200 women, aged 22 to 75 years with breast cancer diagnosed during 2008¨C2009 were interviewed about the period from the first symptoms to the final histological diagnosis of breast cancer. This period (diagnosis time) was categorized into 3 periods: <3 months, 3¨C6 months, and >6 months. If diagnosis time was longer than 3 months, the diagnosis was considered delayed (diagnosis delay). Consultation time was the time taken to visit the general practitioner after the first symptoms. Retrospective preclinical and clinical data were collected on a form (questionnaire) during an interview with each patient and from medical records.The median of diagnosis time was 7.5 months. Only 30.0% of patients were diagnosed within 3 months after symptoms. 14% of patients were diagnosed within 3¨C6 months and 56% within a period longer than 6 months. A number of factors predicted diagnosis delay: Symptoms were not considered serious in 27% of patients. Alternative therapy (therapy not associated with cancer) was applied in 13.0% of the patients. Fear and shame prevented the visit to the doctor in 10% and 4.5% of patients, respectively. Inappropriate reassurance that the lump was benign was an important reason for prolongation of the diagnosis time. Diagnosis delay was associated with initial breast symptom(s) that did not include a lump (p£¿<£¿0.0001), with women who did not report monthly self examination (p£¿<£¿0.0001), with old age (p£¿=£¿0.004), with illiteracy (p£¿=£¿0.009), with history of benign fibrocystic disease (p£¿=£¿0.029) and with women who had used oral contraceptive pills longer than 5 years (p£¿=£¿0.043). At the time of diagnosis, the clinical stage distribution was as follows: 9.0% stage I, 25.5% stage II, 54.0% stage III and 11.5% stage IV.Diagnosis delay was associated with bigger tumour size (p <0.0001), with positive lymph nodes (N2, N3; p£¿<£¿0.0001), with high incidence of late clinical stages (p£¿<£¿0.0001), and with metastatic disease (p£¿<£¿0.0001).Diagnosis delay is very seri %K Libyan female breast cancer %K Diagnosis delay %U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/5/452