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Authors:

  • Marcia C.de Castro
Background: Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence (BCCOE) was founded to serve Rwanda’s rural low-income population, providing subsidized cancer diagnosis and treatment with transport stipends for the lowest-income patients. We examined whether travel distance to BCCOE was associated with advanced-stage diagnoses and treatment completion. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using medical record data from BCCOE patients with pathologically-confirmed breast cancer from 2012–2016. Women with no prior surgery were included in the stage analysis; those with non-metastatic disease were included in the treatment analysis. We calculated travel distances using spatial analytic software and used multivariable logistic regression to examine the association of distance and other patient characteristics with late-stage diagnoses and treatment completion within one year of diagnosis.

Citations

Bhangdia K, Natarajan A, Rudolfson N, Verguet S, Castro MC, Dusengimana JV, Shyirambere C, Schleimer LE, Shulman LN, Umwizerwa A, Kigonya C, Butonzi J, MacDuffie E, Fadelu T, O'Neil DS, Nguyen C, Mpunga T, Keating NL,and Pace LE. 2025 The association of travel distance and other patient characteristics with breast cancer stage at diagnosis and treatment completion at a rural Rwandan cancer facility. BMC Cancer 25 (January): 146.