[Provider delays among patients with breast cancer in a Regional Cancer Care Network: feasibility of personal care schedule].

In order to determine the feasibility of a personal care schedule, we studied provider delays among women with breast cancer in hospitals of a French Regional Cancer Network. In 2001, 148 women have been treated by surgery in the Alexis Vautrin Comprehensive Cancer Centre (AVCCC), then by adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Before surgery, individual variations in delays was observed: from 0 to 65 days between the appointment making and the first consultation, from 3 to 108 days to start the treatment. After surgery, no significant difference in delays was found between women treated at AVCCC and those managed in another network institution (average delays: 35 days between surgery and chemotherapy, 4 months for chemotherapy, 3 weeks between chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and 35 days for radiotherapy). These results suggest an efficient organisation that allow to establish a personal care schedule for each patient after providing anatomopathological data.