Timing from diagnosis to treatment as a surrogate indicator to good quality breast cancer care in countries with high breast cancer mortality.

e13065Background: Breast cancer in the most common cancer in women, responsible for about 20% of all cases of cancer in the world. It is well estabilished the importance of early diagnosis and prompt treatment in reducing mortality rates of the disease, and that the delay between diagnosis and treatment may reduce the chances of cure. In Brazil, a Federal Law determined that cancer patients should wait no longer than 60 days after the diagnosis to get access to treatment. A temporal analysis of breast cancer patients diagnosed at the Breast Center at Hospital Moinhos de Vento in Porto Alegre were reviewed to identify the interval between the diagnosis and the surgical treatment of these patients. Methods: Data was gathered from electronic medical record (EMR) to analyse variables including dates of diagnosis and first treatment and clinical staging. All patients were diagnosed and treated by the same staff of breast surgeons and the other professionals that were trained in the same institution, between 20...