2022 Volume 70 Issue 6 Pages 391-396
The COVID-19 pandemic has continued since January 2020 and affected cancer diagnosis and treatment. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of the pandemic on cancer patients in Nagano Prefecture, using data from the 2018-2020 hospital-based cancer registry (HBCR). The numbers and stage of cancer diagnosis in the HBCR from January 2018 to December 2020 in Nagano Prefecture were analyzed in this study.
A total of 14,034 cancer patients in 2020 were registered. The number declined for the first time since HBCR system started in Nagano prefecture, and the rate of decline was 6.4％ (958 cases) compared with 2019. The decrease in number was remarkablc in colon, gastric and cervical carcinoma. The decrease in early detection cases targeted for open blood treatment in cancer treatment was also remarkable in gastric carcinoma and colon carcinoma, and among them, the decrease was remarkable in endoscopic surgery cases compared with the national data. We should continue this monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hospital-based cancer registries can be powerful tools for evaluating the epidemiology of cancer in Nagano Prefecture.
