The COVID-19 pandemic has an important impact on cancer care and registration.
A questionnaire was distributed in June 2020 to the directors of cancer registries affiliated to the European Network of Cancer Registries (ENCR) with the aim to assess the impact of the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic on medium and long term cancer registration activities connected with the impact on cancer detection and treatment.
The results of the survey showed that cancer-screening programmes were mostly stopped or slowed down in the majority of regions covered by the respondent cancer registries. Cancer diagnostics and treatments were also severely disrupted. The cancer registration process was disrupted, due to changes in the work modalities for the personnel or allocation of staff to different activities related to the control of the pandemic, as well as to the difficulties in accessing sources and/or receiving the notifications. Some CRs reported that they were investigating the impact of COVID-19 on cancer care via dedicated studies. Some of these registries planned to process 2020 incidence data faster than usual, in order to depict the 2020 panorama as quickly as possible. The full results will be published.
A follow-up survey to identify the new challenges faced by the ENCR affiliated cancer registries during the COVID-19 pandemic and to assess the impact on cancer diagnosis and care in the area covered by each registry.
In addition, the survey will provide an overview of the specific studies performed by the cancer registries to identify the impact of COVID-19 on cancer patients and outcomes.
Deadline for submission: 20 September
The password to access the questionnaire is: JRC2020
Access questionnaire here