Background:
Breast Cancer is the most common cancer and the one which causes more deaths in women in Brazil. Timely initiation of treatment of breast cancer may reduce morbidity and mortality.
Aim:
This study aimed to analyze the time interval between diagnosis and initiation of treatment of breast cancer in woman treated between 2000 to 2011 in the Brazilian public health system and to identify factors associated with delay in initiation of treatment.
Methods:
This retrospective cohort study was performed involving 137 593 women diagnosed in 239 hospitals in Brazil between 2000 and 2011.
Results:
In 63.1 % of cases , the interval between diagnosis and the treatment was 60 days. Women more likely to delay were older (OR 1.06, 95%CI 1.01-1.12), nonwhite (0.92, 95%CI 0,87-0,93) , with less than eight years of education (OR 1.08, 95%CI 1.03-1.13) , alcoholics or former consumers of alcohol (OR1.10 , 95%CI 1.04-1.17), derived from the public health system (OR, 1.07 95%CI 1.02-1.15), in initial staging disease (OR 0,81, 95%CI 0.78-0.85) and being treated in the period from 2006 to 2011 (OR 0.56, 95%CI 0.56-0.62).
Conclusions:
The identification of factors associated with delay in initiation of treatment may enable the development of interventions aimed to specific population groups.