The relationship between bone sarcoma incidence/mortality rate in Poland and Internet searches — Google Trends Analysis

INTRODUCTION: Internet searches reflect public awareness, which may be influenced by cancer epidemiology. The aim was to characterize the relationship between the occurrence of bone cancer and the number of Internet searches in Poland. A secondary goal was to assess the relationship between awareness campaigns and online searches. The last goal was to assess the incidence and mortality rate of bone sarcoma in Poland over 10 years. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The epidemiology data of bone cancer in 2010-2020 were analyzed in relation to search volume index (SVI) in Google Trends for terms — ‘osteosarcoma’, ‘chondrosarcoma’, ‘Ewing sarcoma’, ‘bone cancer’, ‘bone tumor’. RESULTS: On average, 317.6 (± 29.8) new cases of bone cancer were diagnosed annually, and 272.2 (± 43.3) patients died annually. Correlations between incidence rates and SVI for terms: osteosarcoma (r = 0.17; p = 0.035), chondro­sarcoma (r = 0.36; p < 0.001) and Ewing sarcoma (r = 0.21; p = 0.008), and between mortality rate and SVI for terms: chondrosarcoma (r = 0.42; p < 0.001) and bone cancer (r = 0.20; p = 0.012) were noted. There was no increase in interest in the topic of bone cancer in July (Sarcoma Awareness Month) in Poland and worldwide. CONCLUSIONS: The incident and mortality rate of bone sarcomas is correlated with the number of online searches for individual phrases. Awareness campaigns do not significantly increase interest in the topic of bone sarcomas on the Internet. Epidemiological data on bone cancer in Poland are comparable to worldwide data.