Patients diagnosed with six common types of cancer are waiting significantly longer for surgery than they were a decade ago, and the delays have grown in every time period measured.
A study published in JAMA Surgery examined data from more than 2.7 million patients diagnosed with non-metastatic stage I through III cancers between 2012 and 2023. Researchers led by cancer expert Timothy Donahue at the University of California, Los Angeles tracked wait times for breast, colon, lung, pancreatic, gastric and esophageal cancers across four time periods. According to Ars Technica, wait times increased for all six cancer types across every period studied.
The numbers were consistent and striking. Breast cancer patients waited an average of 34 days for surgery in 2012 through 2015. By 2022 through 2023, that average had grown to 45 days. Colon cancer patients went from 20 days to 31 days. Lung cancer patients went from 41 days to 53 days. Pancreatic cancer patients went from 23 days to 32 days. Gastric cancer patients went from 35 days to 49 days. Esophageal cancer patients went from 38 days to 48 days.
The study also tracked how many patients fell into categories of prolonged or extreme delays. Prolonged waits, defined as 30 or more days, increased across all six cancer types. So did extreme waits of 60 or more days.
Timeliness is considered a core measure of healthcare quality. Delays in cancer surgery have been linked to worse outcomes, including lower survival rates and greater patient anxiety and distress.
The data covered a period that included the COVID-19 pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, which the researchers separated into their own group. However, wait times were already rising before the pandemic and continued to rise after it, suggesting that the trend is not explained by the pandemic alone.
The study does not identify a single cause for the growing delays, but the pattern across six different cancer types and more than a decade points to broad structural pressures within the American healthcare system rather than isolated problems in any one area of oncology.
