Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with de novo cancer diagnosis, admitted trough emergency services

Características sociodemográficas y clínicas de pacientes con diagnóstico de cáncer de novo, que hicieron su ingreso por servicios de urgencias

Objective: to characterize sociodemographicly and clinically those patients, who after admission by the emergency services of two tertiary level centers in Manizales (Colombia), were diagnosed with some of the most frequent cancers according to the Manizales Population Cancer Registry. Methods: based on the information provided by the Manizales Population Cancer Registry between the years of 2008 to 2012, the five most frequent types of cancer in each gender were chosen for the study. There were 116 cases of those admitted through the emergency services for data extraction from the clinical record, which was later tabulated and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: most of the patients came from Manizales (60.3%), covered by the contributory social security scheme (50.0%), with a mean age of 72.4 years. The mean duration of symptoms before consulting the emergency service was 2.3 months. The most frequent cancers were gastric (41.4%), colon (25.9%) lung (23.3%), cervix (6%) and rectal cancer (3.5%) in advanced stages. Conclusions: new cases of late-stage cancer are still being diagnosed upon admission to emergency services. It is important to know the epidemiology of these cancers in each of the regions and to improve medical training in order to implement strategies to reduce their presentation.