Adjuvant treatment delay in breast cancer patients

Damila Cristina Trufelli, Leandro Luongo de Matos, Patricia Xavier Santi, Auro Del Giglio

to evaluate if time between surgery and the first adjuvant treatment (chemotherapy, radiotherapy or hormone therapy) in patients with breast cancer is a risk factor for lower overall survival (OS). data from a five-year retrospective cohort study of all women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer at an academic oncology service were collected and analyzed. three hundred forty-eight consecutive women were included. Time between surgery and the first adjuvant treatment was a risk factor for shorter overall survival (HR=1.3, 95CI 1.06-1.71, p=0.015), along with negative estrogen receptor, the presence of lymphovascular invasion and greater tumor size. A delay longer than 4 months between surgery and the first adjuvant treatment was also associated with shorter overall survival (cumulative survival of 80.9% for delays ≤ 4 months vs. 72.6% for delays > 4 months; p=0.041, log rank test). each month of delay between surgery and the first adjuvant treatment in women with invasive breast cancer increases the risk of death in 1.3-fold, and this effect is independent of all other well-established risk factors. Based on these results, we recommend further public strategies to decrease this interval.