EVALUATION OF DELAYS IN DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF BREAST CANCER IN A REFERENCE CENTER
A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS
Keywords:
breast cancer, late diagnosis, survivalAbstract
Objectives: To evaluate possible causes of delay in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer in a population treated exclusively by the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) of Brazil. Methods: A retrospective analysis of the medical patient charts of 173 patients treated at IMIP, between January 2011 and December 2017. Time intervals (biopsy and treatment intervals) were associated with sociodemographic and clinical variables utilizing statistical analysis. Results: The mean age was 56.36 years, 116 (67.1%) were from Recife’s metropolitan region and the majority were illiterate or had up to 8 years of schooling. The biopsy interval ranged between 0 and 826 days (41.42; med 12.50) while the treatment interval ranged from 0 and 460 days (94.6; med 69.0). There was no statistically significant association of these intervals with clinical variables such as origin, educational level, age, tumor staging, type of treatment and clinical situation of the patients at the end of the study. Conclusions: Although the early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer are fundamental, the data of this present investigation showed that median delays of 3 months for starting treatment in a public hospital were not associated with worsening of prognosis or survival of the patients.
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Copyright (c) 2019 Maria Carolina Muniz Bezerra, Artur Lício Rocha Bezerra, André Filipe Ferreira Lopes dos Santos, Fernando Moura Lima, Isabel Tenório de Brito Almeida, Larissa Miranda Galvão Ferreira
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