Cancer screening tests and cancer diagnoses during the COVID-19 pandemic
JAMA Jan 18, 2021
Bakouny Z, Paciotti M, Schmidt AL, et al. - In the largest health care system in the northeastern United States, Massachusetts General Brigham, this study evaluated the number of patients who underwent screening for cancer and of subsequent cancer diagnoses during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the four screening periods, 192,060 patients were screened. Findings suggest that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of patients undergoing screening tests for cancer and the number of subsequent diagnoses of cancerous and precancerous lesions were significantly reduced. From June to September 2020, a significant recovery was noted in the number of screening tests and subsequent diagnoses, almost to prepandemic levels. In addition, relative to expectations, a smaller number of possible “missed” diagnoses were likely during the primary pandemic period, given the higher percentage of screening tests resulting in a diagnosis of a cancerous or precancerous lesion during the primary pandemic period, which may suggest the prioritization of high-risk patients for cancer screening during the pandemic.
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