Trends in emergency transport among patients with cancer in an aging rural prefecture of Japan: a seven-year population-based observational study

Emergency medical transport among patients with cancer represents an important but understudied component of emergency care, particularly in aging societies. While cancer-related emergencies are relatively infrequent, their characteristics and clinical outcomes at the population level remain insufficiently understood. This retrospective population-based study analyzed a prefecture-wide emergency medical services database in Japan from 2016 to 2022. Among 268,258 emergency transport records, 2,848 (1.1%) were classified as cancer-related. These cases were characterized by a high proportion of moderate or greater severity (92.9%), a high hospital admission rate (88.7%), and one-week mortality of 17.0%. The proportion of emergency transports classified as cancer-related increased after 2019 and did not decline during the COVID-19 pandemic, in contrast to overall emergency transports, which temporarily declined. These findings suggest that cancer-related emergency transports constitute a small but clinically important subgroup within emergency medical services. Further research is needed to clarify underlying factors and improve care for this population.