Researchers study impact of cancer screening pause

John Abraham’s colonoscopy was postponed for several months because of the pandemic. When he finally got it, doctors found a growth too big to be removed safely during the scope exam. He had to wait several weeks for surgery, then several more to learn it had not yet turned cancerous.

“I absolutely wonder if I had gotten screened when I was supposed to have, if this would have been different” and surgery could have been avoided, said Abraham, a mortgage banker in Peoria, Illinois.

Millions of colonoscopies, mammograms, lung scans, Pap tests and other cancer screenings were suspended for several months last spring in the United States and elsewhere as COVID-19 swamped medical care.

Now researchers are studying the impact, looking to see how many cancers were missed and whether tumors found since then are more advanced.

Already, there are hints of trouble. University of Cincinnati researchers found that when CT scans to check for lung cancer resumed in June, 29% of patients had suspicious nodules versus 8% in prior years.

Multiple studies suggest that fewer cancers were diagnosed last year, likely because of less screening. About 75 cancer organizations recently urged a return to prepandemic screening levels as soon as safely possible.

But tumors take years to develop, and some reports suggest that a few months’ delay in screening for certain types of cancer may not have been as bad as feared. For example, researchers in the Netherlands found that a lapse in that country’s mammography program did not lead to more cancers being found at a late stage after screening resumed.

The pandemic also bred some creative solutions, such as wider use of tests that can be done at home. In Philadelphia, a large church partnered with local doctors and used its drive-thru flu shot program to also pass out stool tests for colon cancer screening.

“We’re not afraid to try anything as it relates to health and wellness,” said the Rev. Leroy Miles of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. “The women were encouraging men to get the screening, saying, ‘I got my mammogram.’ And I’m saying, ‘ma’am, you have a colon too.’”