# Burden of prolonged treatment delay among patients with common cancers in the Philippines

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-cambia-prolonged-treatment-delay-rizal-ccc-2025/  
OnCo record `paper-cambia-prolonged-treatment-delay-rizal-ccc-2025` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Among 20,654 treated patients in the Department of Health's Rizal Cancer Registry, about a third waited more than 30 days for their first cancer treatment and one in five more than 90 days, with longer waits for children and young people, men, patients at non-private hospitals and those with more advanced cancer.

## Summary

A population-based retrospective cohort of 20,654 patients diagnosed from 1990 to 2012 with ten common cancers who received treatment, from the Department of Health Rizal Cancer Registry, which the authors describe as the country's first population-based registry (established 1974, covering about 7 million people by 2012). Poisson regression with robust variance identified predictors of delays beyond 30, 60 and 90 days, overall and by first treatment.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Journal: Cancer Causes & Control
- Year: 2025
- DOI: 10.1007/s10552-025-01969-6
- Authors: Cambia JM, Wannasri A, Orlina ECA, Calvez GAC, Grafilo WM, Liu JJ
- Findings: 35.1% waited more than 30 days from diagnosis to first treatment, 25.2% more than 60 days and 20.0% more than 90 days.; Delays over 90 days were more likely for patients aged 0 to 19, men, those treated at non-private hospitals, those diagnosed in the 1990s, more advanced stage and non-surgical first treatment.
- What it means: It names the groups a national navigation programme would reach first if the aim is to shorten waits for treatment.
- Caveats: Data end in 2012, the latest year available in the registry for analysis.; Only patients who were treated; those never treated are not counted.

## Sources

- Cancer Causes Control 2025: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-025-01969-6
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39992497/

## Connected records

- institutions: [Department of Health Rizal Cancer Registry](https://onco.cc/institutions/doh-rizal-cancer-registry/)

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