The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer screening tests in Brazil: a comparative study of breast, prostate, and cervical cancers

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the number of screening and diagnostic cancer tests performed for prostate, breast and cervical cancer in the Brazilian population. Methods: This was a transversal analytical and quantitative study on the number of screening and diagnostic cancer tests performed in the public Brazilian health care system SUS (Sistema Único de Saúde). Data were collected from the Datasus (online SUS database) during pre-pandemic (March/2019 to February/2020) and pandemic periods (March/2020 to February/2021). We obtained the number of tests performed monthly for each of the tests and compared the two periods. Descriptive statistics were employed and the monthly average number of tests performed in each period were compared using the T Student test. Results: Comparing the pre-pandemic levels with pandemic levels, we found that there was a 45.2% decrease in the number of Papanicolaou (PAP smear) tests (194,978 less exams per month, p < 0,00001), 44.4% decrease in mammograms (142,015 less tests per month, p < 0,00001), and a reduction of 24.4% in the number of prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests per month (minus 148,815 exams performed, p < 0.0012). Conclusion: There was a statistically significant reduction in the number of screening/diagnostic mammograms, PAP smears and PSA performed during the pandemic period, compared to the period before COVID-19. This reduction may result in an increase in the number of cases diagnosed at an advanced stage, with grave consequences for the patients and for the sustainability of the healthcare system.