No abstract

The impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on the proportion of distant metastatic cancer diagnoses of the most frequent cancer types The Covid-19 epidemic had a tremendous impact on the Belgian health care system in March and April 2020 with non-urgent procedures and examinations being postponed and screening programs coming to a halt. This might have delayed cancer diagnosis. In this article the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on the proportion of metastatic cancer diagnoses of the most frequent cancer types was examined. The data of the cancer registry of the Ziekenhuisnetwerk Antwerpen (ZNA) from March until August in the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 were retrospectively analysed. The studied cancer types were invasive breast cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer. There is no relation between the time of diagnosis and the extent of disease. The ratio of metastatic and localised disease did not differ between the studied time periods. However, there is a reduction in the number of diagnosis for breast cancer, prostate cancer and lung cancer, compared with the same period in 2019. This reduction was most pronounced in prostate cancer with a relative reduction of 23%. For now, there does not seem to be a major impact of Covid-19 related restriction measures on the proportion of diagnosis of metastatic cancers in the defined registration period at Ziekenhuisnetwerk Antwerpen. However, further research is necessary to evaluate if the reduced number of diagnoses will lead to an increase in belated diagnoses.