Europe faces ‘cancer epidemic’ after estimated 1m cases missed during Covid

[SVPete]

Europe faces ‘cancer epidemic’ after estimated 1m cases missed during Covid

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/15/europe-faces-cancer-epidemic-after-estimated-1m-cases-missed-during-covid

Experts have warned that Europe faces a “cancer epidemic” unless urgent action is taken to boost treatment and research, after an estimated 1m diagnoses were missed during the pandemic.

The impact of Covid-19 and the focus on it has exposed “weaknesses” in cancer health systems and in the cancer research landscape across the continent, which, if not addressed as a matter of urgency, will set back cancer outcomes by almost a decade, leading healthcare and scientific experts say.
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One unintended consequence of the pandemic was the adverse effects that the rapid repurposing of health services and national lockdowns, and their continuing legacy, have had on cancer services, on cancer research, and on patients with cancer, the experts said.

“To emphasise the scale of this problem, we estimate that about 1m cancer diagnoses might have been missed across Europe during the Covid-19 pandemic,” they wrote in The Lancet Oncology. “There is emerging evidence that a higher proportion of patients are diagnosed with later cancer stages compared with pre-pandemic rates as a result of substantial delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment. This cancer stage shift will continue to stress European cancer systems for years to come.

When just the population of the UK is added to that of the EU, that is already on the order of 500M people, so scale that to the population of the US.

The estimate of 1 million delayed diagnoses is based on: the number of tests done in pre-Covid years; the number of cancers diagnosed due to tests  in pre-Covid years; the number of tests done during the shutdown and panic of Covid years.

It would be interesting to see similar estimates for the US, maybe broken down by states. It would also be interesting to see similar estimates for delayed/missed diagnoses of heart disease. A consequence of Covid shutdowns and panic - consequent delayed/missed diagnoses - will be seen in "excess deaths", for years to come.

[SVPete]

A similar study has been happening in the US:

Cancer diagnoses lag after screenings fall during pandemic, U.S. study finds

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/cancer-diagnoses-lag-after-screenings-fall-during-pandemic-us-study-finds-2022-11-17/

Nov 17 (Reuters) - Screenings for a variety of common cancers have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, potentially leading to diagnoses later in the course of the disease when it may be more difficult to treat successfully, U.S. data published on Thursday suggest.

In 2020 - the first year of the pandemic - average rates of screening for breast cancer fell by 40%, for cervical cancer by 36%, and for colorectal cancer by 45%, compared to the three previous years, according to an analysis of medical claims data from 306 million adults.

The decrease in diagnoses "does not mean these cancers are suddenly less common," said study leader Allison Oakes of data analytics company Trilliant Health in Brentwood, Tennessee. "Rather, it means there are people with cancer who are going to be diagnosed at a later, more severe stage of the disease."