Abstract B124: Breast cancer treatment delays at an urban safety net hospital among women experiencing homelessness
Authors: Festa Kate , Hirsch Ariel E , Cassidy Michael R , Oshry Lauren , Quinn Kathryn , Sullivan Margaret M , Ko Naomi Y 
Published: September 2020

Abstract Disparities in outcomes for vulnerable women is a persistent, ongoing problem. Timely treatment improves breast cancer outcomes and efforts to improve delays among underserved patients is needed. Specifically, homelessness and breast cancer treatment outcomes are understudied. This is a novel and descriptive study exploring types of homelessness and treatment delays at an urban safety net hospital providing care to a vulnerable patient population. Experimental Procedures This study is a retrospective chart review of homeless female patients diagnosed with breast cancer between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2014. Data for this study were acquired from the hospital cancer registry and electronic medical record. Homelessness was categorized as transitionally, episodically or chronically homeless. Other variables collected included demographic characteristics and time to treatment. A detailed chart review was conducted to identify delays to breast cancer treatment and the potential reasons for delay between diagnosis and first treatment. All demographic characteristics, time to treatment and factors related to delays to treatment were analyzed descriptively, reporting frequencies and proportions. Delay to treatment was calculated as date of pathologically confirmed biopsy of breast cancer to date of first treatment (surgery or chemotherapy). Summary of Data The total number of individuals analyzed was 24. All except two subjects were delayed to treatment (&gt; 30 days from diagnosis to treatment). Most women in this cohort were categorized as chronically homeless (46%) with the rest categorized as transitionally (29%) or episodically (12%) homeless. The majority of subjects (70%) were Black, non-Hispanic. Most women identified as single (58%) or divorced (21%) at the time of breast cancer diagnosis. All except one subject were publicly insured (71% Medicaid; 12% Medicare) or uninsured (8%). Regardless of type of homelessness, most subjects were either 30-60 or 60-90 days delayed. Those who were chronically homeless experienced significantly more delays to first treatment (56% of those who were delayed 30-60 days and 57% of those who were delayed 60-90 days; p-value 0.006) than those who were episodically or transitionally homeless. Conclusions Significant delays and barriers to breast cancer treatment exist among women experiencing homelessness. Further studies and focused efforts to improve timely breast cancer care for homeless women is warranted.

Citation Format: Kate Festa, Ariel E Hirsch, Michael R Cassidy, Lauren Oshry, Kathryn Quinn, Margaret M Sullivan, Naomi Y Ko. Breast cancer treatment delays at an urban safety net hospital among women experiencing homelessness [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2019 Sep 20-23; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl_2):Abstract nr B124.