Why such delays for breast biopsy. How long did you wait?

Waiting is so difficult--I am very sorry to hear of this. I looked up what NIHS has to say, and the standard of care is surgery within 3 months of diagnosis, and additional delays of several weeks are not considered dangerous. They say surgery, chemo, and radiation should be completed within a year of diagnosis. I have been very confused myself by being told I have a rare aggressive cancer--and then hurry up and wait. It took me months to get a PET scan and then a followup MRI. For about 90 days I had no idea if I had Stage 4 metastasis to the pancreas or not, which was suspected. (I didn't, just breast and nodes). But I guess my take away is that an "emergency" cancer is less time sensitive than a stroke or heart attack. NIHS also says that tumors growth is unpredictable, and often slows down, so patients shouldn't worry too much about delays. Frankly I find this hard to parse, but am passing it along on the chance that it is useful. When my first attempted MRI was cancelled I just kind of gave up hope and went for a nice walk with my husband. I figured I'd just be dead soon and threw out things I didn't want anyone to have to deal with and wrote up my funeral plans. However I did get treatment and am alive a year later. So wishing you the best.

Thank you. Glad to hear you are doing well. I’m very frustrated and upset about what I see as a nonchalant attitude toward regarding getting expedited biopsies and surgery for women with breast cancer.
Our health care system needs to ‘walk the talk’ regarding saving women from the death grip of breast cancer.

An article relevant to this thread, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10495489/

The data from 2005 - 2019 was complied in 2023: “Time from diagnostic imaging to core needle biopsy was submitted by 406 facilities representing 386,077 patients. The average time was 6 business days, with 75th, 25th, and 10th percentiles of 4, 9, and 13.7 days, respectively.”

Setting an appointment at six weeks given these benchmarks seems like a red flag for the facility.

OMG, horrifying. So glad you are now ok.

I had the same issue. I was stuck in a large healthcare system, where they try to keep you trapped in their system for every phase. My gyno referred me for biopsy and even tho my report was highly suspicious, it was about 3weeks. Called my gyno and she said, don’t worry, these things are very slow growing. I made my own call and expressed urgency and got it moved up a little. Then came triple negative breast cancer with the ATM gene! All under the heading of being your own advocate and pushing until you are satisfied the best is being done for you.

Thanks for saying so! On a positive note--two years later--I'm feeling well and going strong. How are you doing? I'm not an optimist by nature, but am often inspired by what I read here.

glad to be still above ground. Looks like I’ll be ok.

My diagnosis on routine mammogram sonogram June 11 following week cord biopsy following week mri with contrast, brca test following week met with 2nd opinion surgeon - had surgery July 29

Absolutely! I have good insurance and had a biopsy within days...