Exploring the Impact of Time to Surgery Following Different Biopsy Techniques on Early Breast Cancer Prognosis: A Retrospective Study From a Center in China

Introduction Preoperative biopsy techniques, primarily core needle biopsy (CNB), and surgical excision, are routinely employed in clinical practice. Our study aimed to assess the impact of time to surgery (TTS) following different biopsy methods on the prognosis of early-stage breast cancer. Methods We retrospectively analyzed patients with early-stage breast cancer who underwent CNB or excision from 2009 to 2017 and were subsequently treated with standard surgical procedures. Survival outcomes were evaluated using Kaplan‒Meier analysis, Cox proportional hazards models, and propensity score matching (PSM). Results Our cohort comprised 2072 patients, categorized into a 15days_less group (n=1,707) and a 14days_more group (n=365),with a median follow-up of 8.79 years. The median waiting period between biopsy and surgery was 8 days for the CNB group. The majority of excision biopsies occurred on the same day as the standard surgical procedure (median 0 days). Both stratified multivariate and PSM analyses demonstrated that patients with a TTS less than 15 days had significantly better prognoses than those with a TTS more than 14 days. Furthermore, similar results were consistently observed within the respective CNB and excision subgroups. Conclusions Excision biopsy was associated with a shorter TTS in the preoperative setting. Notably, reducing the surgical waiting period across all biopsy groups can potentially improve patient survival.