The power of one: Evaluating the impact of a single multi-disciplinary treatment visit on time to treatment

Breast J. 2020 Oct;26(10):2015-2017. doi: 10.1111/tbj.13875. Epub 2020 May 7.

Abstract

Breast cancer treatment often requires multi-disciplinary evaluation, which can require multiple visits, delaying time to treatment initiation (TTI). The present analysis evaluated the impact of system-wide initiatives to reduce TTI by evaluating TTI for patients completing treatment evaluation in a single visit compared with those having multiple visits. The results demonstrated that patients who completed multi-disciplinary evaluation in a single visit had a reduced median TTI (27 vs 32 days, P = .002), which was seen for patients undergoing initial surgery (28.0 vs 33.5 days, P = .01) as well as for those undergoing neoadjuvant systemic therapy (22.5 vs 29 days, P = .05).

Keywords: breast cancer; outcomes; time to treatment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Breast Neoplasms* / therapy
  • Databases, Factual
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Neoadjuvant Therapy
  • Time-to-Treatment*