Researchers of a case series study evaluated the relationship of time from diagnosis of breast cancer to surgery, measured in weeks, as well as overall survival, looking to identify factors linked with delay of surgery. Data from the National Cancer Database was used of women who had a breast cancer diagnosis from 2010 to 2014. A total of 373,334 patients were included in the study with a median age of 61 years. Through a multivariable Cox regression analysis, compared with surgery that occurred between 0 to 4 weeks post-diagnosis, worse overall survival was seen in time to surgery 9 weeks or later. Younger age, being uninsured or Medicaid status, and lower neighborhood household income were linked to longer times to surgery. Time to surgery of 8 weeks or less as a quality metric is suggested from the findings of this study.
Reference: Wiener AA, Hanlon BM, Schumacher JR, Vande Walle KA, Wilke LG, Neuman HB. Reexamining Time From Breast Cancer Diagnosis to Primary Breast Surgery [published online ahead of print, 2023 Mar 1]. JAMA Surg. 2023;e228388. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2022.8388
Link: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/article-abstract/2802104
