RT Journal Article
T1 Significant Decrease in Annual Cancer Diagnoses in Spain during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Real-Data Study
A1 Ruiz-Medina, Sofía
A1 Gil, Silvia
A1 Jimenez, Begoña
A1 Rodriguez-Brazzarola, Pablo
A1 Diaz-Redondo, Tamara
A1 Cazorla, Mireya
A1 Muñoz-Ayllon, Marta
A1 Ramos, Inmaculada
A1 Reyna, Carmen
A1 Bermejo, María José
A1 Godoy, Ana
A1 Torres, Esperanza
A1 Cobo, Manuel
A1 Galvez, Laura
A1 Rueda, Antonio
A1 Alba, Emilio
A1 Ribelles, Nuria
K1 Cancer diagnoses
K1 COVID-19 pandemic
K1 Real data
K1 Pandemia
K1 COVID-19
K1 SARS-CoV-2
K1 Infecciones por coronavirus
K1 Neoplasias
AB The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a profound change in health organizations at both the primary and hospital care levels. This cross-sectional study aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the annual rate of new cancer diagnosis in two university-affiliated hospitals. This study includes all the patients with a pathological diagnosis of cancer attended in two hospitals in Málaga (Spain) during the first year of pandemic. This study population was compared with the patients diagnosed during the previous year 2019. To analyze whether the possible differences in the annual rate of diagnoses were due to the pandemic or to other causes, the patients diagnosed during 2018 and 2017 were also compared. There were 2340 new cancer diagnosis compared to 2825 patients in 2019 which represented a decrease of -17.2% (p = 0.0001). Differences in the number of cancer patients diagnosed between 2018 and 2019 (2840 new cases; 0.5% increase) or 2017 and 2019 (2909 new cases; 3% increase) were not statistically significant. The highest number of patients lost from diagnosis in 2020 was in breast cancer (-26.1%), colorectal neoplasms (-16.9%), and head and neck tumors (-19.8%). The study of incidence rates throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic shows that the diagnosis of new cancer patients has been significantly impaired. Health systems must take the necessary measures to restore pre-pandemic diagnostic procedures and to recover lost patients who have not been diagnosed.
PB MDPI
YR 2021
FD 2021-06-28
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10668/3547
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10668/3547
LA en
NO Ruiz-Medina S, Gil S, Jimenez B, Rodriguez-Brazzarola P, Diaz-Redondo T, Cazorla M, et al. Significant Decrease in Annual Cancer Diagnoses in Spain during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Real-Data Study. Cancers. 2021 Jun 28;13(13):3215
DS RISalud
RD Apr 6, 2025