A leading cancer
doctor blames delayed cancer screenings, treatments and halted
June
19, 2020, 12:42 PM CDT By Erika
Edwards
One of the nation's
leading voices on cancer predicts the number of people who will die from breast
or colorectal cancer in the U.S. will increase by nearly 10,000 over the next
decade because of COVID-19's impact on oncology care.
"There can be no
doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic is causing delayed diagnosis and suboptimal
care for people with cancer," wrote Norman "Ned" Sharpless,
director of the National Cancer Institute, in an editorial published Thursday in the
journal Science.
Sharpless wrote that
while postponing cancer-related procedures was "prudent" at one point
during the pandemic, overwhelming fear of becoming infected with the
coronavirus in health care settings has drastically reduced the number of
mammographies and colonoscopies that can find tumors at earlier, often
treatable, stages.
"Cancers being
missed now will still come to light eventually, but at a later stage,"
Sharpless wrote, "and with worse prognoses."
26, 202004:24
To prepare for an
onslaught of COVID-19 patients, many hospitals delayed or modified cancer
surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation — treatments that are
typically scheduled carefully with precise doses for the best outcomes.
"Every cancer
institute in the country has been impacted by this," said Dr. Kimmie Ng,
director of the young-onset colorectal cancer center at Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute in Boston and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical
School.
Ng said she and
colleagues nationwide have noted a decrease in the number of new cancer
diagnoses in the past few weeks and months.
"That certainly
has us worried that there are cancers out there that are being
undiagnosed," Ng said. "We are all preparing to see a surge of new
patients."
Sharpless suggested
the fallout will be huge for breast and
colorectal cancers in particular, which account for one-sixth of all cancer
deaths.
"Modeling the
effect of COVID-19 on cancer screening and treatment for breast and colorectal
cancer," Sharpless wrote, "over the next decade suggests almost
10,000 excess deaths," a conservative estimate, he added. That's 10,000
more deaths than would be expected if there had been no pandemic.
Ng said the
Dana-Farber labs are just now starting the process of reopening and resuming
experiments after being shut down for many weeks.
"We've lost
months and months of time just from that temporary shutdown," she said.
Despite the ongoing
pandemic, physicians said medical facilities have put strict precautionary
measures into place to reduce the potential for infection. Patients are often
screened when they arrive, they're given masks, and the number of patients in
waiting rooms is limited.
"Now is a really
safe time to come back to get treatment," Ng said.
More than 41,000
people die of breast cancer each year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 52,000 deaths are attributed to colorectal cancer every year.
"Ignoring
life-threatening non–COVID-19 conditions such as cancer for too long may turn
one public health crisis into many others," Sharpless wrote. "Let's
avoid that outcome."
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