Doctors fear thousands of cancer cases are going undiagnosed as doctors’ offices, hospitals, and labs close due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Between 1970 and 2016, colorectal cancer was the second most deadly cancer in the United States, but with early detection, the five-year survival rate is 90%. Between 1970 and 2016, colorectal cancer deaths plummeted by 51%, largely due to increased screening.
In April, the total number of colonoscopies and biopsies were down 90% compared to the same time in 2019. New cancer diagnoses decreased by a third, and colorectal cancer surgeries fell 53%.
While many cancer surgeries are considered elective, a better description is nonemergent. Delays in cancer surgery can lead to the cancer spreading locally, or throughout the body. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued guidance in March, calling on hospitals to limit “non-essential adult elective surgery and medical and surgical procedures, including all dental procedures.”
Indiana’s Republican governor, Eric Holcomb, was the first to loosen restrictions on elective surgeries. To date, 29 states have allowed hospitals to resume nonemergent procedures.
“Some surgeries can be postponed by a little bit, but this was certainly striking,” Dr. Al Benson, an oncologist, told Reuters. “This will continue to be a challenge, because as the pandemic begins to subside and we begin to schedule more normally, there’s going to be a lot of catch-up. We don’t want people to further postpone screenings, and we certainly don’t want to postpone surgeries.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany touched on the issue in a briefing in early May. McEnany, who herself underwent a preventative double mastectomy, expressed concern that diagnoses could be missed or delayed. An analysis conducted by e-health records company Epic found that screenings for breast and cervical cancer dropped 94% compared to weekly averages in January.
For patients like Christine Rayburn, delays in treatment are a matter of life and death. After her cancer surgery was canceled, she told Kaiser Health News that “it just felt like one of those really bad movies, and I was being sacrificed.”
