Waiting for radiation therapy: does it matter?

The aim of this study was to determine the direct and indirect effects of prolonged waiting times for radiation therapy. We used the Medline, CancerNet and EMBASE databases to search the international research using the keywords radiotherapy, waiting times and delay. The negative effects of prolonged waiting times for radiation therapy can be broken down into direct and indirect effects. Direct effects include tumour control factors and patient factors. Indirect effects include changes in referral patterns and change in management of tumours. The precise effects of prolonged waiting times for radiation therapy are difficult to define. Evidence exists for some tumour sites, such as postoperative head and neck, small-cell lung cancer and high-grade cerebral gliomas, that tumour control might be adversely affected. The effect on other tumour sites is less established. Patient factors are likely to be consistent across all tumour types and indirect effects are hard to quantify.