Prompt Resumption of Screening Programme Reduced the Impact of COVID-19 on New Breast Cancer Diagnoses in Northern Italy

Overview

Journal Cancers (Basel)

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Oncology

Date 2022 Jun 24

PMID 35740694

Authors

Lucia Mangone

Pamela Mancuso

Maria Barbara Braghiroli

Isabella Bisceglia

Cinzia Campari

Stefania Caroli

Massimiliano Marino

Adele Caldarella

Paolo Giorgi Rossi

Carmine Pinto

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the real impact of COVID-19 during the entire 2020 period, compared with 2019. The data comes from a Cancer Registry in Northern Italy and we compared clinical and treatment characteristics of breast cancer by age, stage, treatment, and status screening. In 2020 there was no decrease in invasive tumours nor in in situ (513 vs. 493 and 76 vs. 73, respectively), while there was a significant decrease in surgery and increase in neoadjuvant chemotherapy ( = 0.016). In the screening range (aged 45-74), no change in stage and grading was observed. In the four periods examined there was an increase in new diagnoses during , a decrease in tumours especially at age 75+ [IRR 0.45; 95%CI 0.25-0.79] during , a recovery of new diagnoses in women 45+ in the period while in the there was a significant increase only for ages 45-74 [IRR 1.48; 95% CI 1.11-1.98]. Screening activities were suspended from March to May, but over the summer and autumn the backlog was addressed. This suggests that a prompt resumption of programmed screening may have limited the impact of the pandemic on the delay of breast cancer diagnoses.

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