Background: Disparities in access to care exist for breast cancer patients, including access to surgeons performing reconstruction. We hypothesized rural patients have delayed time to surgery after mastectomy with reconstruction with implications on survival.
Methods: An observational study was conducted using the National Cancer Database on patients with breast cancer from 2003 to 2007 who underwent mastectomy, with or without reconstruction from 2003 to 2007 (n = 90,319).
Results: Patients with, and without, reconstruction varied by demographics, facility type and stage. Time to surgery was longer for mastectomy with reconstruction. Unadjusted analysis demonstrated marginally decreased survival for rural patients undergoing mastectomy alone but not for mastectomy with reconstruction. Cox proportional hazards analysis revealed no significant differences by rural-urban status, but a survival advantage was seen after mastectomy with reconstruction, which persisted up to a delay of 180 days.
Conclusion: Patients who underwent reconstruction had improved survival. Time to surgery is shorter for rural patients (for all types of mastectomy). We found no significant rural-urban disparity in survival.
Keywords: Breast cancer; Mastectomy; Reconstruction; Rural-urban disparities; Surgery.
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