Dedicated, personalized patient navigation serves are high-value investments that can overcome literacy and resource barriers to accelerate the transition from breast cancer screening to diagnosis and reduce rates of late-stage cancer diagnoses, according to Martha Welman, MD.
Welman and colleagues conducted a study evaluating the effects of various patient navigation services on time to breast cancer screening and diagnosis at Neighborhood Health, a Federally Qualified Health Center in Alexandria, Virginia. They found that with these services, the average time from mammogram order to completion decreased by 48%, from 79 days in 2023 to 41 days in 2025.1
“An important outcome was this quicker time from the time [a patient got] screening to their call back to biopsy,” Welman said in an interview with OncLive® during the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Additionally, the time from exam recall to follow-up imaging decreased by 51%, from 59 days in 2023 to 29 days in 2025. The time between diagnostic referral and completion decreased by 47%, from 62 days to 33 days in these respective years. Furthermore, the time to biopsy completion decreased by 48%, from 40 days in 2024 to 21 days in 2025. The percentage of late-stage cancer diagnoses also decreased from 23.3% in 2023 to 7.4% in 2025 (P = .15).
In the interview, Welman discussed the rationale for this research, key findings, and future plans, which include targeting high-risk patients for early screening and monitoring the benefits of these efforts over time. She also emphasized the value of personalized patient relationships over technology, especially for populations with limited access to digital resources.
Why is investigating ways to broaden access to patient navigation services within the breast cancer treatment field relevant?
[This research is] focused on reaching hard-to-reach, low-literacy, low-income, poorly insured patients who need breast cancer screening services.1 This topic came to light after the COVID-19 pandemic, when we saw an increase in our population having late-stage breast cancer diagnoses, particularly in younger women. We wanted to improve access to screening for this difficult-to-reach population.
How was this analysis of breast cancer screening services designed?
We used a multi-pronged intervention focused on reducing the time to cancer diagnosis and hopefully reducing the incidence of late-stage cancer. Many patients who have to navigate the complex web of breast cancer screening and diagnosis are unable to do that successfully on their own. We provided one-to-one navigation with navigators who are bilingual for our non-English–speaking patients to reduce the time from their [screening] order to the completion of their order. If they needed a biopsy or if they were going to [receive] a cancer diagnosis, [we aimed] to [conduct those] as quickly and as efficiently as possible through individual navigation.
Read full interview: https://www.onclive.com/view/patient-focused-services-address-disparities-in-breast-cancer-screening-access
