Comparing time to treatment for neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer across the urban-rural continuum.

Abstract

e12619 Background: Time-to-treatment is a quality measure in breast cancer care that can impact breast cancer survival as delayed treatment can increase mortality. This study aims to determine whether differences exist in time-to-treatment for breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) across the urban-rural continuum. Methods: The National Cancer Database (NCDB) was queried for women with a diagnosis of breast cancer between 1 January 2004 – 31 December 2019. Patients who fit criteria for NAC consideration according to NCCN guidelines were included (inflammatory breast cancer, HER2 positive with tumor stage >T1c, triple negative with tumor stage >T1c, HER2 positive or triple negative lymph node positive, and stage III estrogen receptor (ER) positive). Analysis was stratified according to histopathologic subtype and geographic location as defined by the NCDB. Differences were analyzed using χ2 tests. Results: For patients with NAC-eligible breast cancer, there was no statistically significant difference in terms of days until treatment for each histopathologic subtype across the urban-rural continuum. The distance to treatment facility increases the further away patients are from a large metropolitan area, with individuals located in an urban area that is not adjacent to a metro area traveling the furthest distance (12.7mi large metro, 18.1mi small metro, 36.7mi urban adjacent to metro, 62.6mi urban not adjacent to metro, 56.4mi rural). No significant difference in distance traveled was observed between tumor subtype group. Conclusions: While previous studies have determined that rural patients receive NAC at lower rates than those in large urban areas, this study shows that time to treatment and distance traveled is similar across rural urban continuum and different histopathologic subtypes. Future studies are needed to determine why patients receive NAC at lower rates in rural areas.