Large increases in colon and oesophageal cancer diagnoses in Western Trust

The Queen’s University Northern Ireland Cancer Registry (NICR) has released official statistics on lung, bowel, breast, oesophageal, stomach cancer and melanoma diagnosed in the North for the 1993-2021 period.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which began in 2020, the NICR looked at how the incidence of cancer changed between April-December 2018-2019, 2020, and 2021 thereby ‘providing an overview of the impact of the pandemic on cancer patients and cancer services in general’.

It found that the number of cases of colon cancer diagnosed among those resident in the Western Trust increased by 43 per cent from 86 per year in 2018-2019 to 123 in 2021.

The number of cases of oesophageal cancer diagnosed among those resident in the Western Trust increased by 34.8 per cent from 23 per year in 2018-2019 to 31 in 2021.

And the number of cases of female breast cancer diagnosed among those resident in the Western increased by 6.8 per cent from 176 per year in 2018-2019 to 188 in 2021.

On a more positive note there were decreases in diagnoses of skin, stomach and lung cancers.

The number of cases of malignant melanoma diagnosed among those resident in the Western Trust decreased by 12.5 per cent from 48 per year in 2018-2019 to 42 in 2021.

The number of cases of stomach cancer diagnosed among those resident in the Western Trust decreased by 11.5 per cent from 26 per year in 2018-2019 to 23 in 2021.

And the number of cases of lung cancer diagnosed among those resident in the Western Trust decreased by 2.3 per cent from 172 per year in 2018-2019 to 168 in 2021.

During 2017-2021 there was an average of 238 female breast cancer, 221 lung cancer, 193 colorectal cancer, 54 melanoma, 28 oesophageal cancer and 34 stomach cancer cases diagnosed each year in the Western Trust area.

The Western Trust did not vary significantly from the NI average for lung, colorectal and stomach cancer while it was 12.2 per cent lower than the NI average for melanoma and 17.9 per cent lower than the NI average for oesophageal cancer.

Across the North as a whole during 2017-2021 there was an average of 1,490 female breast cancer, 1,354 lung cancer, 1,216 colorectal cancer, 391 melanoma, 219 oesophageal cancer and 193 stomach cancer cases diagnosed each year.

Looking at the impact of COVID-19 the research found compared to 2018-2019, the number of cases diagnosed in 2021 across the whole of the North increased for all cancer types.

There was:

• a 17 per cent increase in both colorectal and oesophageal cancer cases,
• a 13 per cent increase in stomach cancer cases,
• a 9 per cent increase in female breast cancer cases,
• a 5 per cent increase in melanoma cases and
• a 2 per cent increase in lung cancer cases.

“This represents a considerable recovery in the number of cases detected compared to the situation in 2020 which saw considerable declines in the number of cancer cases being diagnosed compared to 2018-19,” the report notes.

Nearly all Western Trust breast cancer referrals seen within fortnight