What is a typical and acceptable timeline for evaluation and initial treatment of gynecologic cancers?
Fredric V. Price, MD: The timeline for initial evaluation and treatment of gynecologic cancers is highly variable, depending on circumstances. For example, a woman in pain or severely bleeding should be seen rapidly, have her diagnosis confirmed with appropriate tests and have therapy instituted immediately. Generally, this process should be accomplished within a few days to a week. On the other hand, patients whose diagnosis arises without symptoms, perhaps as a result of participation in a screening program, may expect to wait for a convenient time to be seen by a specialist. Sometimes this can take weeks to months. Many people are surprised that there is a delay in the diagnosis of cancer, because they are under the impression that cancers are easy to spot. Of course, it is easy in hindsight to look at a problem from the past and attribute it to an undiagnosed cancer. Many of my patients ask me when their cancer began. This question is unanswerable. It goes without saying that if th
