Time to diagnosis and treatment in lymphoma and implications for health-related outcomes: a systematic review

Timely diagnosis and treatment are important in lymphoma care. This systematic review examined articles published up to April 2025 which reported intervals from symptom onset to treatment initiation and a subset examining associations with health-related outcomes. Of 11,606 articles screened, 67 were included (23 reported associations). Significant heterogeneity was noted, with 27 intervals reported across various lymphoma subtypes. Methodological issues included poor reporting of interval variability, small sample sizes, and arbitrary interval categorization. Commonly reported intervals included symptom onset to diagnosis (articles; median range), (27; 26-217 days), symptom onset to first presentation (23; 9-91 days), first presentation to diagnosis (17; 15-126 days), and diagnosis to treatment start (25; 1-42 days). Most association studies considered treatment interval and survival, finding inconsistencies. Only few examined the length of diagnostic or patient interval impacts on health outcomes. Future research should apply the Aarhus Checklist - a tool designed to enhance precision and transparency in early cancer diagnosis research to improve the consistency and quality of interval reporting. Further, non-linear interval-survival associations should be explored to capture paradoxical effects.