Drop in cancer diagnoses in 2020 possibly linked to COVID-19 disruptions: Statistics Canada
cbc.ca/news/health/canada-cancer-diagnosis-2020-covid-19-statistics-canada-1.6846564
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Statistics Canada: 2020 Cancer Diagnoses Possibly Lower Amid PandemicThe rate fell to 450 new cases per 100,000 people; Statistics Canada cited disrupted care and screening as possible reasons.
- The 2020 rate of new cancer cases was 12.3 percent below the average annual rate during the previous five years.
- After initial lockdowns, registered cases fell to 8,640 in April but returned to 11,585 in June.
- Breast, lung and bronchus, prostate and colorectal cancer rates were lower; throat and anal cancers rose compared with 2015–2019.
- British Columbia announced sending some cancer patients to two Washington clinics for radiation therapy beginning the following week.
If we had picked this up six months ago this would have been treatable and now it's inoperable.— Dr. Sheila Singh, pediatric neurosurgeon at McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, speaking about delays in cancer diagnosis during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Canada's principal government institution in charge of statistics and census data
measure of the probability of occurrence of a given medical condition in a population within a specified period of time
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