Introduction: Head and neck cancers represent a major health problem in Hungary. With
their high incidence and mortality rates, Hungary is one of the world leaders in these
indicators. The length of patient delay, defined as time from onset of symptoms to
first medical consultation, is unknown in Hungarian patients with head and neck cancer.
We aimed to use a representative sample of the Hungarian head and neck cancer patient
population to determine patient delay according to disease localization and stage
and to identify correlations with other clinical parameters.
