Status
Completed
With financial support from Pink Ribbon, and in collaboration with breast cancer experts, the Belgian Cancer Registry (BCR) is evaluating the impact of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic on breast cancer diagnosis and treatment in Belgium.
In March 2020, the healthcare system was caught off-guard by the COVID-19 outbreak. Both hospitals and GP practices were overloaded, and non-essential care, including routine breast cancer screening, was temporarily halted. As a result, about 50% fewer breast cancer diagnoses were made in April 2020 compared with April 2019. Although services later caught up, there was still a net 5% decrease in diagnoses over 2020 as a whole compared with 2019.
Two questions are central to the research project:
1. Were breast cancer diagnoses during the COVID-19 pandemic made at a more advanced tumour stage at the time of diagnosis compared to a non-COVID-19 year?
To answer this research question, classical cancer registration data will be used to compare the distribution of tumour stages across breast cancers diagnosed in 2020 with the distribution in previous years. In addition, the extent of the disease, based on the exact dimensions of the breast tumour and the number of affected lymph nodes, will also be compared with the situation in previous years. To make these analyses possible, BCR manually searches the individual data in the pathology reports.
2. Were any changes identified in the diagnostic or therapeutic approach to breast cancers during the first COVID-19 year, 2020, compared with prior non-COVID-19 years?
For this research question, administrative data from insurance institutions obtained by the Agence InterMutualiste (AIM) (the agency responsible for collating data from Belgium’s seven health insurance funds) will be used to map the diagnostic process and treatment regimen implemented for breast cancer patients in Belgium. In addition, a collaboration with 11 individual hospitals will enable specific data to be collected for all patients diagnosed with or treated for breast cancer in 2019–2020. This will be used for sub-analyses.
The results of this study will be communicated through one or more scientific publications in consultation with Pink Ribbon.
In March 2020, the healthcare system was caught off-guard by the COVID-19 outbreak. Both hospitals and GP practices were overloaded, and non-essential care, including routine breast cancer screening, was temporarily halted. As a result, about 50% fewer breast cancer diagnoses were made in April 2020 compared with April 2019. Although services later caught up, there was still a net 5% decrease in diagnoses over 2020 as a whole compared with 2019.
Two questions are central to the research project:
1. Were breast cancer diagnoses during the COVID-19 pandemic made at a more advanced tumour stage at the time of diagnosis compared to a non-COVID-19 year?
To answer this research question, classical cancer registration data will be used to compare the distribution of tumour stages across breast cancers diagnosed in 2020 with the distribution in previous years. In addition, the extent of the disease, based on the exact dimensions of the breast tumour and the number of affected lymph nodes, will also be compared with the situation in previous years. To make these analyses possible, BCR manually searches the individual data in the pathology reports.
2. Were any changes identified in the diagnostic or therapeutic approach to breast cancers during the first COVID-19 year, 2020, compared with prior non-COVID-19 years?
For this research question, administrative data from insurance institutions obtained by the Agence InterMutualiste (AIM) (the agency responsible for collating data from Belgium’s seven health insurance funds) will be used to map the diagnostic process and treatment regimen implemented for breast cancer patients in Belgium. In addition, a collaboration with 11 individual hospitals will enable specific data to be collected for all patients diagnosed with or treated for breast cancer in 2019–2020. This will be used for sub-analyses.
The results of this study will be communicated through one or more scientific publications in consultation with Pink Ribbon.
COVID-19 and cancer