Timeliness of Treatment Initiation in Newly Diagnosed Patients With Breast Cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Evidence-based timeliness benchmarks have been established to assess quality of breast cancer care, as delays in treatment are associated with poor clinical outcomes. However, few studies have evaluated how current breast cancer care meets these benchmarks and what factors may delay the timely initiation of treatment.

Patients and methods

Demographic and disease characteristics of 377 newly diagnosed patients with breast cancer who initiated treatment at Tufts Medical Center (2009-2015) were extracted from electronic medical records. Time from diagnosis to initial surgery and time from diagnosis to initiation of hormone therapy were estimated with Kaplan-Meier curves. Multivariable regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with treatment delays.

SUBMITTER: Dong J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11372729 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature