Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on breast cancer diagnosis and treatment trends in Japan.

ABSTRACT:

Background

There is no comprehensive report regarding which patient groups were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan having universal health insurance system. To provide the guidance regarding how to act in future pandemics, we investigated the changes in breast cancer (BC) diagnosis and treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

The trends of monthly data were calculated in relation to the variables of a total of 291,018 primary BCs registered on the Japanese National Clinical Database between January 2018 and April 2021.

Results

An analysis of the nationwide data during the pandemic showed 9% decrease of newly identified BC compared with before the pandemic. The impact was more relevant in the 40-50, 51-60 and 61-70-years age groups (13%, 8% and 9% decre

SUBMITTER: Miyashita M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12394362 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature