The epidemiology of the most frequent cancers in Poland in 2015-2021 and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer incidence

Sep 21, 2026

Study of Poland’s most frequent cancers assesses how cancer incidence changed across 2015–2021, with special attention to disruption during the 2019–2020 COVID-19 period. Late diagnosis persists despite improved access and cooperation among specialist cancer centers, while pandemic restrictions reduced availability of healthcare resources and diagnostic procedures. Retrospective analysis uses depersonalized epidemiological data from the National Health Fund, calculating incidence rates per 100,000 standardized to the 2013 European Standard Population.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

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Contributions to the literature

Background

Choręza et al. Archives of Public Health (2024) 82:49 Archives of Public Health [https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-024-01277-6](https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-024-01277-6) RESEARCH Open Access The epidemiology of the most frequent cancers in Poland in 2015–2021 and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer incidence Piotr Choręza 1*, Aleksander Jerzy Owczarek2, Wacław Kruk3 and Jerzy Chudek4 Abstract Background The late diagnosis, despite the improving availability and accessibility of diagnostic procedures during the last decade in Poland and cooperation between specialist cancer centres, remains an unsolved problem. Moreover, the accessibility to healthcare resources and diagnostic procedures has been drastically reduced because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019–2020 . The study aimed to present the epidemiology of the most frequent cancers diagnosed in Poland as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancers’ incidence. Methods Depersonalized, epidemiological data was obtained from the National Health Fund of Poland. In this retrospective study, the epidemiological analysis was performed and divided into subregions, according to patients’domicile. For each of the subregions, we have calculated the incidence rate per 100,000 standardized to the European Standard Population 2013. The time points of providing the first healthcare service were considered as the time of cancer diagnosis. Results In the 2015–2019 period, before the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, the nationwide incidence of analysed cancers remained stable or slightly decreased (as the lung cancer) . Simultaneusly, during the same period the prevalence of the prostate cancer has increased and the large differences between subregions with the least and the highest incidence were observed. Subsequently, the incidences of all analyzed cancers decreased in 2020, compared to the period before the COVID-19 pandemic occurred. Then, in 2021 a disproportionate increase in cancers’ incidence rates was noted. Conclusions Our results show a significant decrease in the incidence rate of the most frequent cancers diagnosed in Poland in 2020 compared to 2019. Subsequently, in 2021 the increase of the incidence ratios was noted, most likely due to the gradual reduction of epidemic restrictions. Keywords Cancer, Epidemiology, COVID-19, Poland *Correspondence: Piotr Choręza[pchoreza@sum.edu.pl](pchoreza@sum.edu.pl) 1Department of Medical Statistics, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Ostrogórska 30 Street, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland 2Health Promotion and Obesity Management Unit, Department of Pathophysiology, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland 3Department of Nursing and Public Health, University of Rzeszów, Rzeszów, Poland 4Department of Internal Medicine and Oncological Chemotherapy, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland © The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creativecommons.org/l](http://creativecommons.org/l)icenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ([http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)) applies to the data made a

FAQs

What problem does the study address regarding cancer care in Poland?

It highlights persistent late cancer diagnosis in Poland despite improving availability and accessibility of diagnostic procedures, and it examines how COVID-19 reduced healthcare and diagnostic access during 2019–2020.

How were the incidence rates calculated in this retrospective study?

The study used depersonalized epidemiological data from the National Health Fund of Poland, analyzed retrospectively by subregions based on patients’ domicile, and calculated incidence per 100,000 standardized to the European Standard Population 2013.

What changes in cancer incidence were observed after the COVID-19 pandemic began?

Incidences of analyzed cancers decreased in 2020 compared with the pre-pandemic period, followed by a disproportionate increase in 2021.

Sep 21, 2026

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