Objective:

To estimate the effect of care-delivery delays on survival among women with breast cancer.

Materials and methods:

A retrospective analysis of 854 women attending 11 hospitals from 2007-2009 was carried out. Kaplan-Meier estimators and a Cox proportional-risk model were employed.

Results:

A total of 10.5% of cases were diagnosed in stage I. 82% of sampled women delayed care for more than 67 days between noticing a symptom and initiating treatment. The median time from receipt of results of the mammography to biopsy was 31 days (IQR 14-56). Compared with those who were in quartile I (Q1), survival was lower among those in Q3 and Q4 (HR=1.68, 95%CI 0.94-3.00; HR=1.76, 95% CI 1.04-2.98, respectively).

Conclusions:

To increase survival, it is suggested that the time between receipt of the mammography results and diagnostic biopsy be reduced.

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