Data shows COVID precautions gave ‘screenable’ cancers an unwelcome opening
Many public health experts believe global pandemics will become more frequent in coming years. Given the advance warning, healthcare leaders should plan now to encourage screening compliance then.
This is one self-evident conclusion to draw from a new study showing more than 134,000 adult cancers may have gone undiagnosed in the U.S. between March and December of 2020.
In that timeframe, the COVID-19 crisis—along with the aggressive avoidance and prevention measures it prompted—deterred millions from keeping up with outpatient care visits, including cancer screenings.
The study was conducted at the University of Kentucky and published Feb. 22 in JAMA Oncology.
Lead author Todd Burus, MAS, and colleagues note that the tally of 134,000 undetected cancers translates to one cancer missed for every nine caught.
Looking at 1.3 million cancer cases reported in the study period, the team found observed rates of all-sites cancer incidence were 28.6% lower than expected during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic response, that being March through May of 2020.
Reported cancers also were 6.3% lower than expected from June through December of that year 13% lower during the pandemic’s first 10 months.
Other key findings from the study:
- Screenable cancers saw a total rate reduction of 13.9% compared with the expected rate.
- Prostate cancer accounted for the largest number of potentially missed cases (22,950), followed by female breast cancer (16,870) and lung cancers (16,333).
- The rate of female breast cancer showed evidence of recovery to previous trends after the first three months of the pandemic, but levels remained low for colorectal, cervical and lung cancers.
The states with the strictest policies for COVID mitigation had the worst disruptions to cancer diagnoses from March to May 2020, although all states had largely recovered by December of that year, Burus and co-authors report.
However, in the highly restrictive states, significant shortfalls vs. expected counts continued into 2021 for cancers of the lung, kidney and pancreas.
The authors state in their discussion section:
“Our findings offer crucial information for current cancer prevention and control initiatives. Furthermore, these findings emphasize the need to consider how future disaster planning could affect cancer detection.”
The study is available in full for free.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.