Introduction
Breast cancer is the most common cancer for women, with an estimated 2.3 million cases worldwide in 2020.1 Any delay in initial medical consultation and subsequent breast cancer treatment increases the risk of relapse, recurrence, and mortality.2-4Therefore, it is important for the general public to be more aware of the symptoms and signs of breast cancer, and to visit medical institutions if they experience any symptoms that may lead them to suspect breast cancer.5,6
More than 75% of breast cancer patients are detected after a recognition of their symptoms,3 and 20-30% of symptomatic patients experience a delay of more than three months between the initial perception of symptoms and the first visit to medical institutions.4 From a previous study, even a three month delay in diagnosis has been shown to reduce the five year survival rate by about 7%.3 For these delays, various factors related to the patients and their environment, such as young age and living alone, have been suggested.7
Recently, the impact of disasters on cancer care has been attracting global attention, as seen in past events such as the Triple Disaster of 2011 (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant accident), Hurricane Katrina, Gorsica earthquake, and Typhoon Hagibis. Especially with the COVID-19 pandemic that has been spreading worldwide since November 2019, various aspects of breast cancer care have been affected negatively.8,9
We previously reported on how complex disasters can jeopardize cancer treatment in the context of the 2011 Triple Disaster.10, 11 However, the effects of this disaster were mainly due to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which forced local residents to evacuate on a large scale for fear of the radiation. There is not enough information on how cancer treatment would be compromised in the event of such a combination of completely different disasters. It is clinically important to consider this issue because we are currently living under the COVID-19 pandemic and we do not know when other disasters will occur.12, 13
Here, we report on a breast cancer patient in Fukushima, whose initial visit to medical institutions was delayed by two years due to Typhoon Hagibis and the COVID-19 pandemic.