Breast cancer incidence in Northern Thailand has shown a continuous increase since records began in 1983. In 2002 the urgency of the situation prompted Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital to initiate the Suandok Breast Cancer Network (SBCN). | Chitapanarux et al. BMC Cancer 2022 22 26 https s12885-021-09153-0 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Integration of breast cancer care in a middle- income country learning from Suandok Breast Cancer Network SBCN Imjai Chitapanarux1 2 3 Wimrak Onchan1 2 Panchaporn Wongmaneerung1 4 Areewan Somwangprasert1 4 Nongnuch Bunyoo1 Chagkrit Ditsatham1 4 Kirati Watcharachan1 4 Chaiyut Charoentum1 5 Patumrat Sripan3 Ausreeya Chumachote1 and Puttachart Maneesai1 3 Abstract Background Breast cancer incidence in Northern Thailand has shown a continuous increase since records began in 1983. In 2002 the urgency of the situation prompted Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital to initiate the Suandok Breast Cancer Network SBCN . Methods The SBCN is a not-for-profit organization in the university hospital which serves as a training and educa- tion center and provides highly specialized medical care for patients in Chiang Mai and in 5 provinces of northern Thailand with the key mission of improving breast cancer care. The short-term goal was to overcome the barriers to engagement with breast cancer and its treatment and the long-term goal was to increase the overall survival rate of breast cancer patients in our region. Results We enrolled breast cancer patients treated at Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital between January 2006 and December 2015 and divided into 2 cohorts 1485 patients who were diagnosed from 2006 to 2009 cohort 1 early implementation of SBCN and 2383 patients who were diagnosed from 2010 to 2015 cohort 2 full implemen- tation of SBCN . Criteria to measure improved cancer waiting time CWT would include time to diagnosis time to surgery and time to radiotherapy. The 5-year overall survival OS of the cohort 2 was higher than that in cohort 1 at compared to p-value . Conclusions Reasons behind the success of project include the uniformity of care encouragement service net- work development and timely access to each step of breast
