Neglected breast cancer in the Appalachians.

e13023Background: Neglected breast cancer occurs due to delay in seeking care. While this is primarily an issue in developing countries it is also observed in high income countries in regions such as Appalachia. We aim to describe the epidemiology of neglected breast cancers seen in our institution. Methods: A patient with a neglected breast cancer should have signs of advanced breast cancer and had at least a 6 month delay from onset of symptom. Patients with inflammatory breast cancer were excluded. Kentucky Cancer Registry (KCR) was queried to find patients that presented to Markey Cancer Center of the University of Kentucky between 1/1/2010 and 12/30/2016 with a diagnosis of breast cancer and initial consultation notes that had any of the following terms – “ulcer,” “open wound,” “neglected,” “fungating,” “ulcerated,” “eschar,” “necrosed,” “advanced.” IRB approval was obtained. Descriptive statistics were done and survival analysis was done through Kaplan Meier method. Results: Seventy-six patients wer...