Trajectory of Breast Cancer Screened Women in Unified Health System

Abstract

Introduction: Knowing the times between the steps of a screening program is important to track the cancer control actions. Objective: Estimate the time interval between the suspected result of malignant mammography and the beginning of the first treatment, and to identify associated factors with its onset, among women screened for breast cancer, in services of the Unified Health System (SUS) in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Method: The records of the Information System of Breast Cancer Control for women aged 40-69 years, with a screening mammography carried out in july-december/2010, and whose results revealed suspicious (BI-RADS® 4 or 5) were related to Hospital, Outpatient and Mortality Information Systems for 2010-12. The time was estimated by Kaplan-Meier method, and its determinants were identified through Cox regression. Results: 158 women with altered mammography, records were identified, with breast cancer diagnosis, in the other databases for 66 (41.8%). Of these, 12.1% had information on biopsies. The median time between mammography and the start of treatment was 206 days, being lower for women aged 40-49 years (138 days) than for older women (190 for women aged 50-59; 234 days for women of 60-69 years) (Log rank, p<0.05). Women who repeated the mammography (hazard ratio: 0.36; 95% confidence interval 0.19-0.72) presented a longer time. Conclusion: There are few biopsies registered in the SUS and long time until the beginning of treatment, even when mammographies are requested by specialized hospitals, which demonstrates the need for SUS to improve the follow-up of women with suspected mammography.