Screening, diagnosis and hospitalization of breast and cervical cancer in Brazil from 2010 to 2022: a time-series study

In Brazil, during the pandemic caused by COVID-19, screening for breast and cervical cancers was postponed or interrupted due to the prevailing health conditions. These neoplasms, however, are responsible for high morbidity and mortality among women in Brazil and have a major impact on the quality of life of this population and on public health. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the epidemiological behavior of hospitalization for cervical and breast cancer in Brazilian women, as well as the trend of screening tests and diagnosis of breast and cervical cancer in the years 2010 to 2022 in Brazil. This is an ecological research of time series, based on secondary data obtained from information systems of the country, about hospital admissions for breast and cervical cancer and screening methods used for these tumors. The data were analyzed in the Joinpoint Regression Program, to obtain the linear regression and temporal analysis of the variables. As results, there is a decrease in hospitalization rates for cervical cancer between the years 2010 and 2015 and a subsequent increase in 2019. Regarding breast cancer, there was an increase in hospitalizations, until reaching a peak in 2019. For both, in the pandemic years, between 2020 and 2022, there is a decrease in Brazil and in all its regions. As for the tracking of these diseases, it was observed that the performance of mammograms and preventive tests showed a similar behavior, in which there is a higher supply of these tests until 2019 and a drop during the pandemic period. This leads to the conclusion that even though Brazil has several policies for screening and early diagnosis of these diseases, there is still instability in the offer of tests and that there was a precariousness in this area during the pandemic.