Abstract
Background: The health burden of breast cancer is rising in China. The effect of informed diagnosis on long-term survival has not been fully understood. This retrospective cohort study aims at exploring the association between early informed diagnosis and survival time in breast cancer patients.Methods: 12,327 breast cancer patients were enrolled between October 2002 and December 2016. Potential factors including knowing cancer diagnosis status, gender, age, clinical-stage, surgical history, the grade of reporting hospital and diagnostic year were registered. We followed up all participants every 6 months until June 2017.Results: By June 2017, 18.04% of the participants died of breast cancer. Both the 3-year and 5-year survival rate of whom knew cancer diagnosis were longer (P<0.001). By stratified analysis, except subgroups of male patients and patients in stage III, patients knowing diagnosis showed a better prognosis in all the other subgroups (P<0.05). By Cox regression analysis, it was showed that not knowing cancer diagnosis was an independent risk factor for survival in breast cancer patients (P<0.001).Conclusions: Being aware of their cancer diagnosis plays a protective role in extending the survival time in breast cancer patients, which suggests medical staff and patients’ families disclose cancer diagnosis to patients timely.
Outcomes and characteristics of Danish patients undergoing a lung cancer patient pathway without getting a lung cancer diagnosis. A retrospective cohort study
