Abstract

FIGUEROA-MONTES, Luis E; CHAVEZ-ALTAMIRANO, Nicolás Eduardo  and  GARCIA-ESPINOZA, Giancarlo. Implementation of a breast surveillance unit for diagnosing breast cancer in a micro-network from a Social Security facility in Lima-Peru. Acta méd. Peru [online]. 2019, vol.36, n.1, pp.11-18. ISSN 1728-5917.

Objective: To measure the time (days), before and after implementing a breast surveillance unit, for following-up patients with a mammography suspicious for breast cancer, until they had an anatomopathological diagnosis or a clinical intervention. Materials and methods: A quasi-experimental pre-post study was designed to compare the median times (days) for referral and diagnosis of breast cancer without the implementation of a breast surveillance unit in 2014-2015 and after its implementation in 2017, in third-level Suarez-Angamos Hospital - EsSalud (Peruvian Social Security). A nonparametric analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Ninety-nine patients were included. The time interval for referral without the breast surveillance unit had a 37.0 days median, compared to 33 days when the unit had been implemented (p= 0.003). With respect to the time for achieving a diagnosis, the median was 189 days without the unit and 56 days with the implementation of the breast surveillance unit (p<0.001). Conclusion: The implementation of a breast surveillance unit reduces the time for achieving an adequate and timely diagnosis of breast cancer in patients with suspicious mammography in the Rebagliati - EsSalud Healthcare Network.

Keywords : Mammography; Early Detection of cancer; Breast neoplasms; Patient navigation.

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