Delay times to definitive diagnosis after an abnormal Pap smear.

The delay between the issuing of an abnormal cytology report and the subsequent histological diagnosis has been studied for women diagnosed with carcinoma in situ, microinvasive cancer and invasive cancer in Victoria during 1985-1986. The median delay was 0.75 weeks for women with invasive cancer, 6.2 weeks for women with microinvasive cancer and 4.9 weeks for women with carcinoma in situ. Little variation was apparent with the type of practitioner taking the smear or with the area of residence of the woman. Ten of the 235 women in this study had delays of greater than 20 weeks. Five of these women were ultimately shown to have microinvasive or invasive cancer where the cytology report had indicated a lesser degree of neoplastic change. It is possible that the lesions progressed during this time.