ABSTRACT
Background: During the CoViD-19 pandemic, cancer screening has been suspended, routine diagnostic work deferred, and only urgent symptomatic cases had priority for diagnostic intervention. This disruption to cancer screening services may have a significant impact on patients, health care practitioners, and health systems. In this study, we estimated the increase of diagnosis of cancer in our department of Clinical Medicine. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we collected data on patients with active or previous malignancy, aged 18 years and older, admitted to our Unit of Clinical Medicine from 1 January 2021 to 31 March 2021 (Group A) compared with pre-pandemic figures from 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2020 (Group B). Results: We collected data of 239 patient from Group A, 121 (50.6%) were female. Median (interquartile range) age was 65.0 (56.0-70.0) years, median (interquartile range) hospitalization was 16 day (12-20), 43/239 (18%) were hospitalized due to cancer or its complications. Compared with pre-pandemic figures (Group B), we estimate an increase in hospitalizations of patients with newly diagnosed advanced cancer and/or complications of previous cancer. Conclusions: Substantial increases in the number of new cases of cancer in our wards of Internal Medicine are to be expected as a result of diagnostic delays due to the CoViD-19 pandemic. Urgent interventions are necessary, particularly the need to manage the backlog within routine diagnostic services to mitigate the expected impact of the CoViD-19 pandemic on patients with cancer.