Figure 1. Flow diagram of stage, delayed initiation, and prolonged treatment duration among 2,841 cases in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study Phase 3 (2008-2013).

All cases included first, primary breast cancers stage I to III, who received surgical treatment within 18-months of diagnosis. Treatment initiation is defined by days since diagnosis and split by timely and delayed treatment initiation, where timely indicates ≤60 days (delayed = >60 days) from diagnosis to first treatment (definitive surgery, chemotherapy [adjuvant or neoadjuvant], or radiation). Treatment duration is defined based on quartiles of patients with the same treatment modality (definitive surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation) and split by timely and prolonged treatment duration, were timely indicates quartiles 1 to 3 (prolonged = quartile 4) of time interval, in days, between the date of first treatment and the date of the last treatment (definitive surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation).