The Covid-19 pandemic did not reduce cancer survival rates in Switzerland

Corona has not reduced cancer survival in Switzerland Keystone-SDA

Although there were fewer cancer diagnoses during the first wave, the medical system was able to catch up.

The Covid-19 pandemic had no relevant influence on the stage at which cancers were recognised or how good the chances of survival were in the first year after diagnosis. This was announced by the National Cancer Registry on Tuesday.

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“While studies from other countries have observed relevant changes in Covid-19 in relation to cancer incidence, the situation in Switzerland appears to be different,” the experts wrote in the press release.

For the study published in the journal Swiss Medical Weekly, researchers analysed cancer registry data on over 200,000 cancer cases from 2017 to 2021.

Certain cancers particularly affected

During the first wave of the pandemic with lockdown, the number of diagnosed cancer cases fell significantly. In April 2020, 19.9% fewer cases of cancer were diagnosed than is normally the case in April. Particularly hard hit were cancers that are often detected through screening, such as breast cancer (-39.9%) and colorectal cancer (-28.7%). Lung cancer diagnoses fell only slightly.

By the end of the year, the declines had evened out – according to the study, an overall increase in cancer diagnoses of 2.1% was recorded in 2020 compared to 2017 to 2021.

In 2021, there was a further increase in diagnoses of 7.3%, with a peak in March 2021 (+18.8%), especially for prostate cancer and melanoma. Whether this is a catch-up effect or whether there are other reasons for the increase is still being investigated.

Stable survival rate

The cancer survival rate one year after diagnosis remained stable in 2020. Cancer patients who received their diagnosis in 2020 therefore did not have a worse prognosis than those who received their diagnosis the year before. Survival rates in 2021 were even slightly higher compared to the years 2017 to 2019.

According to the cancer registry, this reflects the general trend over the last few decades that survival rates for cancer diagnoses are steadily improving.

Adapted from German by DeepL/ac

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