As we know, screening is crucial in reducing cancer mortality. As a reminder, in France, the number of cancer patients is around 3.5 million, and there are more than a thousand new cases per day. But with the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, and the two-month confinement from mid-March to mid-May … screening has become rare.
Delays in diagnosis raise fears of rise in cancer deaths
Less 50% : this is the first estimate made by Unicancer, which brings together 18 cancer centers in France, thanks to a comparative study on the number of patients seen in the last two months compared to other years over the same period.
“It’s huge, reacted this May 20 in the newspaper Provence, Patrice Viens, Director of the Paoli-Calmettes Institute in Marseille. We can imagine that cancers have not magically halved. We know the reasons. On the one hand, you have new patients who have not come to be diagnosed or who have postponed their first appointment; on the other hand, you have patients who postponed their treatment when the teams were fully organized to receive them. At one point, patients were even called to encourage them to follow their care. “
Getting to the doctor as quickly as possible if you have any doubts about your health is now urgent. The confinement did not magically disappear the cancers … Only the number of new cases! The fear of being contaminated by Covid-19 by going for a test (among others) would have prevented 30,000 cancers from being discovered over the past two months.
Another striking and revealing figure: the number of colonoscopies to detect colon cancer has dropped by 80%.
Don’t wait to get tested!
Jean-Yves Blay, director of the Léon Bérard oncology center in Lyon and of the Unicancer federation, which brings together the centers for the fight against cancer, worries in the columns of the Parisian (June 3): “there will be an excess cancer mortality “. According to estimates by Unicancer, “5,000 to 10,000 additional cancer deaths” are to be feared. The problem is the delay in taking charge of new patients, for example the women who, in March, felt a small lump in the breast and said to themselves that it was better to wait until the end of the epidemic to to consult.
The whole issue is the impact of this delay in terms of survival. “The figures vary, but we know thata month late leads to a loss of between 5 and 20% of chances depending on the tumor, underlines Jean-Yves Blay. Prostate cancer is often quite indolent at first, so two months probably doesn’t make much of a difference. But for breasts, ovaries or even sarcomas, the risk of relapse and mortality is increased from the first delay in diagnosis. “The doctor develops his point with the example of one of his very young patients who thought that her small lymph node above the collarbone could well wait until the end of the Covid. “We have just taken care of her for Hodgkin lymphoma”.
If in doubt, do not wait to consult. Having a tumor that is 1 cm or 5 cm is not the same thing. The earlier a cancer is caught, the better the chances of survival.
Also read:
- Colorectal cancer: organoids to the aid of patients
- Breast cancer screening: for whom? How? ‘Or’ What ?
- Prostate: the signs that should alert