ArticleESMO open2021
Decline and incomplete recovery in cancer diagnoses during the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium: a year-long, population-level analysis.
Article in ESMO open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 67 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
67 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 250 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on melanoma diagnosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of global evidence.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- A systematic review of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on breast cancer screening and diagnosis.Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2023Pooled it
- Epidemiological Assessment of Oral and Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinomas Before, During, and After the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2018-2024.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Inpatient Hemato-Oncology Service Use Before, During, and After COVID-19 Restrictions in a Romanian Tertiary Center.Cureus · 2026Article
- Cancer Diagnoses and Deaths in Hungary, 2011-2023: Nationwide Trends Before, During, and After the COVID-19 Pandemic.Cancers · 2026Article
- Colorectal cancer incidence before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a non-linear interrupted time-series analysis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Leveraging Digital Technology and Artificial Intelligence to Describe the Real-World Belgian Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Patient Population: The BE-CLLEAR Study.JCO clinical cancer informatics · 2026Observational
- Monitoring cancer survival in Belgium: early insights 3 years after the COVID-19 pandemic.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2026Article
- The impact of COVID-19 on South African public-sector interventional radiology services - A single-centre study.Journal of the colleges of medicine of South Africa · 2026Article
- Subtype-specific health and economic impact of delayed breast cancer diagnosis during the early COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium: a Markov model analysis.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2025Article
- Article
- COVID-19 pandemic interruption of breast cancer screening is linked to clinical upstaging at presentation: the roles of demographics, socioeconomic status and unmet social needs.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2025Observational
- Differences in the incidence and mortality of tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer between the Global Cancer Observatory 2022 and the Global Burden of Disease 2021.Journal of the National Cancer Center · 2025Article
- Ten-year analgesic utilization patterns and economic implications in Portugal.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Article
- Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown on cancer stage distribution and time to treatment initiation using cancer registry data of the Swiss cantons of Zurich and Zug from 2018 to 2021.Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology · 2025Article
- Changes in cancer incidence and stage during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021 in the Nordic countries.Acta oncologica (Stockholm, Sweden) · 2025Article
- Trends in colorectal cancer cases at a Mexican secondary-care hospital.Ecancermedicalscience · 2025Article
- Investigation of the relationship between fear of the pandemic and health beliefs regarding breast cancer of women between the ages of 40-69.Journal of education and health promotion · 2025Article
- Uncovering the toll of the first three COVID-19 waves: excess mortality and social patterns in Belgium.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2024Article
7 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOncological care was considerably impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Worrisome declines in diagnostic procedures and cancer diagnoses in 2020 have been reported; however, nationwide, population-based evidence is limited. Quantification of the magnitude and distribution of the remaining outstanding diagnoses is likewise lacking.
methodsUsing accelerated delivery of data from pathology laboratories to the Belgian Cancer Registry, we compared the nationwide rates of new diagnoses of invasive cancers in 2020 to 2019.
resultsWe observed a 44% reduction in total diagnoses of invasive cancers in April 2020 compared with April 2019, coinciding with the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The reduction was largest in older patients and for skin cancers (melanoma and nonmelanoma). Reductions in diagnosis were less pronounced among children and adolescents (0-19 years). A smaller decline was observed for most cancers with typically poorer prognosis or obvious symptoms, including some hematological malignancies, lung, and pancreatic cancer. Suspension of organized population screening programs was reflected in a strong decline in diagnosis in the screening age groups for female breast cancer (56%) and for colorectal cancer in both men (49%) and women (60%). The number of diagnoses began to increase from the end of April and stabilized at the beginning of June at or just above 2019 levels. There has yet to be a complete recovery in cancer diagnoses, with an estimated 6%, or ∼4000 diagnoses, still outstanding for all of 2020. Among solid tumors, head and neck cancers have the largest remaining year-over-year decrease in diagnoses at 14%.
conclusionThese results add to the evidence of a profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on oncological care and identify groups at risk for continuing diagnostic delays. These data should stimulate health care providers worldwide to facilitate targeted, accessible, and efficient procedures for detection of cancers affected by this delay.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.