When you hear about a decrease in cancer diagnoses, your first instinct is to probably say something like, “That’s great! That means that less people have cancer!”

Well, that’s not exactly the case.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals and clinics have not been operating under normal circumstances, with many choosing to put off most—if not all—of their non-emergency procedures in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19 among communities. This means that for timespans ranging from a few months to well over a year, many people have been missing their colorectal cancer screenings (colonoscopies). The result of this was a significant decrease in the number of patients diagnosed with colon cancer, and those that were diagnosed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic tended to be older, experiencing more severe symptoms, and have more advanced stages of colon cancer [1].

Basically, this means that many patients with pre-cancerous growths (polyps) or early-stage cancer likely went undiagnosed and untreated due to their missed screenings. By missing the opportunity to diagnosis cancer at these early stages, at which point colon cancer is highly curable, the disease is given more opportunity to progress, and thus it becomes harder to treat. Doctors predict that the lapse in colorectal screenings that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in approximately 1 in 4 people going undiagnosed based on the data collected so far, will be evident in the years to come as more patients will be diagnosed with more advanced stages of colon cancer [1].

This tragic prediction further illustrates the importance of regular cancer prevention screening. By catching pre-cancerous cells or early-stage cancers, doctors are able to swiftly address and prevent further disease development and metastasis, and patients have a much higher chance of being successfully treated [2].

References

1.     Colon cancer diagnoses fell 40% in pandemic, and that's not good news. https://www.webmd.com/colorectal-cancer/news/20211004/colon-cancer-diagnoses-fell-40-in-pandemic-and-thats-not-good-news (accessed Nov 4,  2021).

2.     Why is early diagnosis important? https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-symptoms/why-is-early-diagnosis-important (accessed Nov 4,  2021).

Written and illustrated by Kaylie Lively of Amaryllis Editing Services LLC