The effect of the number of biopsies on the delay in the time from the delivery of mammography results to breast cancer histopathological diagnosis

Abstract

The delay in the time (in calendar days) from the delivery of mammography results to histopathological breast cancer (BC) diagnosis could be associated with more advanced clinical stages, a worse prognosis and higher mortality. Therefore, we assessed the association between the number of biopsies and the delay in the time (in calendar days) from the delivery of mammography results to histopathological BC. A survey was performed on 563 women aged between 35 and 69years with histopathologically confirmed BC who attended 11 Mexican hospitals. After adjusting for potential confounders, the odds of having a delay in the time (in calendar days) from the delivery of mammography results to histopathological BC diagnosis (≥ 60days) among women with ≥ 3 biopsies were 2.99 times the odds of those who had only one biopsy (95% CI 1.35, 6.63). The number of biopsies should be considered as a predictor of the time delay between the delivery of the mammography result and the diagnostic result.