If you have received a cancer diagnosis, know this from the start: the law is on your side when it comes to time. Treatment through the SUS cannot wait indefinitely, there is a legal deadline, and knowing it is the difference between accepting a delay that seems inevitable and claiming a right that is yours. This guide explains the “60-day law” and how to use it.
What the law guarantees
Law 12.732/2012, known as the 60-day law, guarantees a cancer patient the start of the first treatment in the SUS within 60 days from the date the diagnosis is confirmed in a pathology report (or, for imaging-based diagnoses, from the date the doctor signs the report). If the diagnosis was made privately, the count begins when you deliver the report to an SUS doctor. “Start of treatment” means the first effective measure, surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, as indicated for your case.
Keep the date that starts the clock
Because the deadline counts from the report, the most important document for you is exactly that: the pathology (or imaging) report with the signature date. Keep the copy, note the date, and if you delivered the exam to an SUS doctor, keep proof of that delivery. That date turns “I have been waiting a long time” into “the legal deadline expired on such-and-such day”.
What to do if the deadline is not met
- Record a complaint with the ombudsman of the hospital where you are followed, and with the SUS Ombudsman (phone 136), keeping the protocol number.
- Contact the responsible Health Department if you are still waiting for scheduling through regulation.
- Seek the judicial route when needed. In cancer, time is part of the treatment, and the courts recognize the urgency. Access can be free, through the Public Defender’s Office, and an urgent decision can order treatment to begin immediately.
Claiming the deadline is not “jumping the queue”: it is enforcing a law made precisely so that no one, facing cancer, has to depend on luck to start treatment in time. This guide is part of our practical series on how to use the SUS.
About the author
Ramon Martins Andrade (OAB/RJ 188.374) is a lawyer graduated from UFRJ in 2011, holding master’s degrees from the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle and from the Brazilian Naval War College (EGN). He is currently a researcher in Human Rights and Health at ENSP/Fiocruz, where the concept of sanitary return emerged from his research in study groups on the Brazilian diaspora and access to healthcare.
This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice, advertising of results, or any guarantee of outcome, under Rule (Provimento) 205/2021 of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB).