Therapeutic modalities in the first cancer treatment: percentage variation before and during the pandemic, in Ceará, a state in the Northeast region of Brazil.

Objective: To evaluate the percentage variation of the different therapeutic modalities used in new cases of cancer, before and during the pandemic, in Ceará.

Methods: Descriptive study with information from records of the Hospital Information System and Authorization of Highly Complex Procedures, and Cancer Information Systems in the state of Ceará, Brazil.

Results: There was a reduction of 2,575 (-30.85%) new cases in 2020 and 2,368 (-28.37%) in 2021. Regarding the therapeutic modalities, it was possible to observe that there were decreases in the numbers of all institutions in the first cancer treatment, except for isolated radiotherapy and for combined surgery+iodine therapy+radiotherapy. Surgery was the modality most often performed in a timely manner (<30 days) and chemotherapy in an untimely manner (>60 days). The impact on the initiation of timely treatment (<30 days after diagnosis) was greater in 2021 than in 2020. In general, late treatments (>60 days) were lower than in 2019. The period of 31-60 days was shown to be above 2019 almost the entire year, in 2020 and 2021.

Conclusion: The number of new cancer cases in Ceará may occur during the pandemic. This situation impacted the reduction of all therapeutic modalities, except for radiotherapy alone and associated with surgery+iodine therapy. However, it did not harm the number of new cases treated in a timely manner.