The COVID-19 pandemic impact on breast cancer screening: a systematic review

• Grant number: 21/11158-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2021
• End date: November 30, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Francisco José Candido dos Reis
• Grantee: Lívia Maria Alves
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto (FMRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and the leading cause of cancer death in women. Breast cancer screening aims at finding breast cancer early in healthy, asymptomatic patients by mammography exam in order to detect it at an early stage for a better prognosis. In contrast, the COVID-19 pandemic led to the interruption of several health services aiming at decreasing the Sars-Cov-2 transmission and relocating health resources. The interruption affected both breast cancer screening and diagnosis. Our work intends to identify the COVID-19 pandemic impact on breast cancer screening in order to foresee additional diagnoses of advanced cancers and mortality increase in the next years. The project will be developed following the PRISMA protocol. The chosen databases for the initial research are PUBMED, Web of Science, CINAHL, and EMBASE. The research strategy will include controlled vocabulary (MeSH) and keywords representing the concept Breast neoplasms, Screening and COVID-19.With this study, we hope to obtain a global overview of the COVID-19 pandemic impact on breast cancer screening, publish the results in a specialized journal with international circulation, and enhance student education in the context of knowledge production. (AU)