Coronavirus and the cost of postponed cancer screenings: short delays may not be too damaging, but early detection is still key to survival
- The coronavirus pandemic played havoc with colonoscopies, mammograms, lung scans and Pap tests as medical staff focused on treating patients with Covid-19
- Studies are now looking at the short-term and long-term effects of delays in screening and treatment for cancers
John Abraham’s colonoscopy was postponed for several months because of the pandemic. When he finally got it, doctors found a growth too big to be removed safely during the scope exam. He had to wait several weeks for surgery, then several more to learn it had not yet turned cancerous.
“I absolutely wonder if I had got screened when I was supposed to have, if this would have been different” and surgery could have been avoided, said Abraham, a mortgage banker in Peoria, in the US state of Illinois.
Millions of colonoscopies, mammograms, lung scans, Pap tests and other cancer screenings were suspended for several months last spring in the US and elsewhere as Covid-19 swamped medical care.
Now researchers are studying the impact, looking to see how many cancers were missed and whether tumours found since then are more advanced.
