New cancer diagnoses have decreased as a result of COVID-19 restrictions in hospitals and healthcare facilities, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System analyzed data from Veterans’ Affairs facilities nationwide from 2016 to 2020.
They found that new cancer diagnoses in 2020 decreased by 13% to 23%, depending on the type of cancer.
A decrease in diagnoses does not mean that fewer people are getting cancer, the study says.
Rather, fewer people are getting screened.
The study exemplifies another effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nation’s health.
“Although more than 600,000 people have died directly from COVID-19, we also must be cognizant of the indirect losses occurring throughout the pandemic due to undiagnosed and untreated diseases such as cancer,” said Thomas Hornyak, associate chief of staff for research and development at VA Maryland Health Care System, in a news release.
The nationwide lockdown in March 2020 paused all elective clinical procedures, and people continued to postpone routine care even when the lockdown was lifted, the study says.
“The disruption in non-emergency health care during the peak of the pandemic was intentional and necessary,” said Brajesh K. Lal, a vascular surgeon and researcher at the Baltimore VA Medical Center, in a statement.
“As we enter the recovery phase, we hope that our work will help physicians, hospitals, and healthcare organizations anticipate the extent to which they have fallen behind in their efforts to diagnose new cancers,” he said.
