Cancer Screening Recipients Decrease 30 Pct in Japan in 2020

From Jiji

April 17 2021

TOKYO – The number of people who underwent cancer screening in 2020 in Japan fell some 30 pct from the previous year, the Japan Cancer Society said Saturday. 

The drop came apparently as many medical checkups were canceled due to the spread of the novel coronavirus and a lot of people refrained from visiting doctors amid the epidemic.

The Tokyo-based society is calling on people to receive cancer screening at an early date, saying estimates based on the size of the decrease of screening recipients and cancer detection rates show that some 1,000-2,100 people may have undetected cancers.

 The society asked its 42 branches across the country to report the number of recipients of cancer screening offered by local governments and received valid answers from 32 branches between February and March this year.

The survey found that the number of people who received screening for stomach, lung, bowel, breast and cervical cancers in 2020 fell some 30.5 pct from 5,670,796 in 2019 to 3,941,491 and dropped around 32.2 pct from 2018.