Definition: The percentage of women (aged 18+) receiving a breast cancer resection for whom breast-conserving surgery (BCS) was their final procedure (i.e., where BCS was their first surgery or where a wider excision in the context of BCS was performed within one year of their first surgery).
Rationale for measurement: Breast-conservation therapy is less invasive than mastectomy and is associated with lower morbidity, improved cosmetic appearance and better psychological outcomes. In addition, mastectomy and breast-conservation therapy yield comparable survival outcomes. Identifying breast conservation surgery rates can indicate variations in practice across provinces, which could help identify opportunities for improving patient experience.
Measurement timeframe: 2014/15-2015/16 combined
Denominator: Women with invasive breast cancer who received breast conserving surgery and/or a mastectomy
Numerator: Women who received breast conserving surgery (BCS) as their final procedure
Exclusion criteria:
- Women younger than 18 years of age
- Potential duplicate records are identified as discharges with identical values in some of the data elements. In the event that duplicate records are found, the most recent record is retained, the remaining duplicate records are removed
- Invalid Health Card Number
- Procedures coded as abandoned
- Newborns, stillbirths and cadaveric donors
- Invalid procedure date
- No discharge procedure laterality assigned
- Invalid postal codes
Data availability: All provinces and territories, except QC
Stratification: By jurisdiction
Data source: Canadian Institute for Health Information; Hospital Morbidity Database (HMDB); National Ambulatory Care Reporting System; Alberta Ambulatory Care Reporting System.
Data retrieval date: November 2017
Variables details: Not applicable
Notes from jurisdictions: Not applicable
Methodology notes:
- Analysis was conducted and provided by Canadian Institute for Health Information.
- In order to identify a mastectomy, the following surgical codes were used according to CCI: 1.YM.89 to 1.YM.92.
- The following CCI codes were used to identify a breast conserving surgery: 1.YM.87, 1.YM.88.
- Based on patient's place of residence.
Changes to definition compared to previous years: Not applicable