THE REDUCTION IN BREAST CANCER SCREENING PROCEDURES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND THE INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF DIAGNOSES AND DEATHS FROM MALIGNANT BREAST NEOPLASMS IN BRAZIL: A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common and deadly tumor in the female population, accounting for 522,000 deaths annually worldwide. In Brazil, its incidence is 56.20 cases per 100,000 women, and it is a public health problem. Early detection is the main strategy for combating breast cancer, based primarily on screening, the most widely used method of choice being mammography. It was estimated that between 1987 and 1997, in the United States, 10,000 women stopped dying from breast cancer due to effective screening. In Brazil, the number of mammograms increased by 248% between 2009 and 2019. On the other hand, during the coronavirus pandemic, millions of patients were prevented from having mammograms due to social isolation policies implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aimed to analyze and compare the decrease in procedures performed for breast cancer screening during the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in the registration of malignant nodular lesions and deaths from malignant breast neoplasms in the post-pandemic period. It referred to a quantitative research, based on data available on the DataSUS platform, through the Cancer Information System (SISCAN). A decrease in the volume of procedures performed during the pandemic period and a subsequent increase in the number of breast cancer diagnoses and deaths from this cause in Brazil were observed.