Dire New Warning About Cancer in Europe

"Europe needs to settle the consequences in cancer diagnosis and care due to Covid-19, before it is too late” said Dr Isabel Rubio, President of the European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists. “Reviewing newly compiled data on how often women delayed their breast cancer screenings and treatments during Covid-19 suggests that more of them are at risk of advanced cancer and lower survival in the coming months and years. And the story is similar for virtually every type of cancer."

Statistics released today by the European Cancer Organisation on its Time To Act Data Navigator – now upgraded to include searches by country and tumour type – show the devastating impact of Europeans avoiding hospitals during the peak of the pandemic.

"The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on cancer services and cancer patients has been devastating said Prof Mark Lawler, Professor of Digital Health at Queen’s University Belfast, and Co-Chair of the European Cancer Organisation Special Network on the Impact of Covid-19 on Cancer. "Unfortunately, our new data show this still to be the case – the cancer backlog is substantial and remains a major problem. We are in a race against time to find those individuals who we may have missed because of the impact of Covid-19. If we don’t move quickly, we risk a cancer epidemic in Europe. The progress that we have made in cancer care in Europe may have been set back by almost a decade."

The new data from the Data Navigator highlight that we are still seeing negative impacts from the pandemic, and this will lead to significant challenges across Europe:

• Germany: An additional 5.2% decrease in newly diagnosed breast cancer patients in April 2020 - March 2021 as compared to April 2019 - March 2020.
• Turkey:

o 14.5% decrease in admitted breast cancer patients between March 2020 and March 2021, as compared to March 2019-March 2020

o 41.8% higher delay time between the onset of first symptoms and the first medical visit for breast cancer

o 2.8-fold increase in frequency of breast cancer detected at metastatic stage (stage IV).

• Austria: 11.65% drop in expected breast cancer patients for radiation therapy session in February 2020-May 2021 as compared to February 2018-May 2019, peaking at 45% reduction rates during certain months.

"Screening and early detection are without question the most powerful tools we have in the fight to reduce cancer deaths,” said Dr Fatima Cardoso, the director of the Breast Unit of the Champalimaud Clinical Center in Lisbon, Portugal. "Delays in diagnosis lead to more advanced cancers being detected, with lower probability of cure and worse prognosis."

Some of the other alarming statistics revealed today on the European Cancer Organisation’s Time To Act Data Navigator show:

• Romania: 65.3% reduction in malignant histopathological diagnoses established between April 2020 and February 2021, as compared to April 2019-February 2020
• Germany: 12.8% decrease in newly diagnosed skin cancer patients in April 2020 - March 2021 as compared to April 2020 - March 2020
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: 16.2% decrease in oncology department visits in March 2020 – March 2021, as compared to March 2019 – March 2020
• United Kingdom: 50% of UK’s head and neck cancer patients requiring surgery significantly complex and compromising treatments in February 2021

This new evidence confirms previous research by the European Cancer Organisation’s Time To Act campaign, which showed that 1 million cancer cases could have been undiagnosed across Europe in 2020, due to the backlog of screening tests, reduction and delays in referrals and restricted healthcare resources due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"These data suggest that hospitals and health systems across Europe need to get ready,” said Dr Rubio. "They need the resources to build up capacity now for the additional cases – and more complex cases – that are coming."

"Our data emphasise that we need to get cancer back on top of the European health agenda and highlight the need for urgency in addressing the cancer backlog. The Time to Act is Now" added Prof Lawler.

Read more from our co-chairs of the Special Network on the Impact of Covid-19 on Cancer, Mirjam Crul and Mark Lawler, here.