Referral and treatment delay for breast cancer treated at a third level oncology hospital of IMSS, 2019-2020

Objective: To compare the referral delay (Dref) and the treatment delay (Dtx) of workers with breast cancer (BrCa) treated at a third level oncology hospital (HOnco) in 2019 and 2020.Methods: A retrospective cohort study was carried out in workers who attended the HOnco in 2019 and 2020 diagnosed with BrCa.Both, the Dref and the Dtx were defined as the elapsed days from suspicion consultation until the referral to HOnco and from this to the beginning of treatment.The data was gathered from the clinical file.In order to compare the variables, c 2 and U Mann y Whitney were used with p ≤ 0.05.Results: With a total of 542 cases, the Dref was 21 days and the Dtx was 35 days.When comparing 2019 and 2020, significant differences were found in the Dref (17 vs. 24 days) advanced stage (32.2% vs. 51%) and primary private care (14.5% vs. 38.8%).Conclusions: Dref for BrCa was significantly higher for 2020.