Abstract
Background: The aim of this study is to document the time intervals of breast cancer and especially the delays of patient, diagnosis and treatment and to evaluate how clinical, socio-demographic and treatment factors influence the delays along the clinical course of a patient.
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted at the FEZ Oncology Hospital of the Hassan II University Hospital Center in MOROCCO.
Results: 410 medical records of breast cancer patients were collected. The 31.2% of the patients were 45–54 years old. Median patient delay was 6 days, median diagnostic delay was 97 days, and median treatment delay was 44 days. Multivariate analysis revealed that the patient age was associated with the delay in diagnosis and treatment. The diagnosis year (the year in which the patient was diagnosed (either from 2012 to 2014 or 2015 to 2017), was associated with the patient delay and the diagnosis delay. The age, the type of medical consultation (general physician, private physician, specialist physician or Health Care Worker), the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) tumour stage and the biopsy exam were associated with the diagnosis delay. Thus, the delay of the treatment was significantly associated with the nodal status.
Conclusion: The concept of measuring time intervals in the cancer patient pathway is a crucial indicator for improving the quality of care.
