Nearly 20% fewer diagnosed with cancer due to childbirth

“Don’t give up, don’t postpone the screening actions until the next day, it’s important”. Professor Jean-Pierre Delord, head of the Cancer Institute of the University of Toulouse-Oncopole, knows what he is talking about. For the past three weeks, his teams have observed that cancer appointments were still spontaneously canceled by patients. Of course, this time it is less than 5% of consultations for a second opinion, a diagnosis or even a surveillance.

But this is in addition to the cancellations already recorded during the first hospitalization and which are not without consequences. “We have observed throughout our region that in the period March-April-May we had an underdiagnosis of tumors of the order of 20%, which is important”, indicates the manager of one. of the largest centers specialized in oncology in Occitania.

Fewer colonoscopies or scans

For the moment it is difficult to know the consequences in terms of loss of opportunity for these patients. But this observation was also made by the Primary Health Insurance Fund, some indicators that confirm this trend.

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Between mid-March and mid-September there was also a decrease in the use of some products used to carry out medical diagnoses compared to the same period of the previous year. Thus, 250,000 fewer preparations were made for colonoscopy, this figure rises to 500,000 injections of iodine products for CT scans and 280,000 uses of contrast products for MRI2. So many diagnostic steps that will not have been done and early cancer management will not have been done.

Or later. The doctors of Toulouse Oncopole thus saw cases of patients with very advanced situations. “Clearly, not having access fast enough to a simple blood test if you have leukemia, not having access to a scanner if you have a cough or digestive upset, having massively stopped mammography screening,” it gave the impression to many doctors that they receive a percentage of patients with diseases that are larger, more voluminous, more advanced or more symptomatic than outside the Covid phase “, underlines Jean-Pierre Delord.

Medium and long term consequences

The latter therefore urges patients to continue attending their appointments, as health safety measures are important in hospitals, especially in their specialized centers. Cancer patients themselves have taken precautions on their side, “the prevalence level of Covid infections is lower in people who are undergoing active cancer treatment,” notes the doctor. On the other hand, its consequences, in particular the confinement, will certainly have had a psychological impact on patients who, after chemotherapy, often aspire to return to a normal social and professional life, now upset.

For the moment, this health crisis has not yet produced all its effects on the treatment of cancer patients. “But the consequences of Covid on the disorganization of primary care could have medium and long-term consequences, even if I don’t know how to measure them today”, confirms the one who directs the Pink City University Cancer Institute. In particular, pathologies discovered early thanks to screening campaigns.

And for cancers that are not screened for organized screening, there will certainly be an impact on the likelihood of cure. A study published in British Medical Journal showed that delaying cancer treatment by one month increases mortality by 6 to 13%.