Key takeaways:
- Sufferers with HR+ and HER2-negative subtypes had probably the most pronounced improve in breast cancer-specific mortality threat related to surgical procedure delay.
- The chance for these subtypes grew exponentially after 42 days.
Sufferers with sure subtypes of breast most cancers could also be at greater threat for demise by ready greater than 42 days after their analysis to bear surgical procedure, based on research outcomes printed in Breast Most cancers Analysis.
Sufferers with HR+ or HER2-negative breast most cancers gave the impression to be affected probably the most, findings confirmed. Mortality threat elevated by 21% after 60 days, by 79% after 90 days and 183% after 120 days for these sufferers.

Information derived from Salewon ML, et al. Breast Most cancers Res. 2024;doi:10.1186/s13058-024-01949-9.

Takemi Tanaka
“I had encountered fairly a number of circumstances beforehand the place breast most cancers sufferers voluntarily delayed surgical procedure; there have been additionally an excellent variety of circumstances the place a affected person must wait fairly a very long time for insurance coverage approvals,” Takemi Tanaka, PhD, lead research creator and professor within the division of pathology on the College of Oklahoma Faculty of Drugs, informed Healio. “Watching these tales and seeing that was fairly irritating. It received us questioning how lengthy a affected person ought to wait, [whether] there’s a security window and the way lengthy can they wait with out illness progressing.”
Analysis has proven that surgical procedure delay following breast most cancers analysis is related to elevated mortality threat, based on research background.
A affected person’s breast most cancers subtype additionally performs a key function in prognosis and helps information remedy choices. Nonetheless, little is understood about whether or not the impact of delayed surgical procedure on survival differs by subtype.
Salewon and colleagues investigated this in a retrospective cohort research utilizing the SEER-Medicare database. They recognized 34,248 sufferers (median age at analysis, 73 years) identified with loco-regional invasive breast most cancers between 2010 and 2017 who underwent surgical procedure as their first remedy.
The researchers grouped sufferers by most cancers subtype: HR+/HER2-negative (n = 28,332), HER2-positive (n = 3,226) and HR–/HER2-negative (n = 2,690).
Breast cancer-specific mortality served as the first consequence.
Median time to surgical procedure — outlined as days from diagnostic biopsy to surgical procedure — was 29 days throughout subtypes.
Outcomes confirmed that breast cancer-specific mortality threat, adjusted for demographic, medical and remedy variables, elevated as time to surgical procedure elevated for all subtypes.
Sufferers with HR+/HER2-negative subtypes had probably the most substantial improve in mortality threat related to time to surgical procedure, with exponential progress beginning at day 42.
“The 42 days was actually shocking and a lot quicker than we thought,” Tanaka stated. “That was a complete shock, as a result of how might it’s that brief? We additionally discovered that the kind of illness that was affected probably the most was HR+ and HER2-negative breast most cancers, which is understood to be one of the best prognostic subtype.”
Adjusted subdistribution HRs for sufferers with HR+/HER2-negative subtype reached 1.21 (95% CI, 1.06-1.37) at day 60, 1.79 (95% CI, 1.4-2.29) at day 90 and a pair of.83 (95% CI, 1.76-4.55) at day 120 in contrast with a reference time to surgical procedure of 30 days.
The researchers reported slower linear progress for sufferers with HER2-positive and HR–/HER2-negative subtypes.
“We’d strongly advocate avoiding a delay in remedy, if doable,” Tanaka informed Healio. “The difficult factor is {that a} good variety of girls may also obtain fairly a little bit of profit from the delay from analysis to surgical procedure: for instance, a younger girl who wants egg preservation and an MRI and a second opinion, that are all protected rights for sufferers with breast most cancers.
“However for those who’re [a patient] who doesn’t must find time for these issues, the general longer wait time shouldn’t be serving to,” she added.
For extra info:
Takemi Tanaka, PhD, will be reached at takemi-tanaka@ouhsc.edu.