Impacto da pandemia no rastreamento do câncer de mama nas sete maiores cidades de Minas Gerais

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the major health problems of our time, not only in Brazil but worldwide. The Brazilian Ministry of Health has a mammography screening program for asymptomatic women and establishes parameters for coverage and access for all women. That being said, in 2019, the world was surprised by the emergence of a new type of virus capable of infecting humans, leading the World Health Organization to declare the beginning of the pandemic on March 11, 2020. The new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) can cause severe respiratory problems and has claimed millions of lives worldwide. Among the various measures to control and mitigate the virus, a drastic reduction in healthcare services was implemented. The main objective of this study is to analyze the impact that the reduction in healthcare services during the pandemic had on mammography screening in the seven largest cities in Minas Gerais. A severe reduction in the number of screening exams was identified in all seven cities analyzed. However, despite the reduction during the years 2020 and 2021, all cities except Uberlândia showed a decline in the number of exams between 2015 and 2019. In contrast, Uberlândia continued to experience growth in the number of exams until 2019, with a sharp decline in 2020, but still presenting a higher number of exams per hundred thousand inhabitants than all other cities. The number of deaths remained relatively constant among the cities, with little variation over the years studied. All cities have an adequate number of mammography equipment to meet the population's demand. It was concluded that the pandemic had a devastating effect on the production of mammography screening exams and revealed a relative lack of preparedness on the part of responsible organizations in times of crisis.