Summary
Lung cancer screenings down due to COVID. Drop in lung cancer screenings due to canceled or postponed services has led to worse patient outcomes.
The COVID-19 Results Are In: Lung Cancer Preventive Screenings Are Down, Patient Outcomes Worse
An early analysis shows that low-dose CT screening for lung cancer has still not fully rebounded, leading to later detection of cancers.
The news may not be surprising, but a study published today verifies what many providers in the industry feared would happen during the pandemic – the drop in lung cancer screenings due to canceled or postponed services has led to worse patient outcomes.
Since the start of the pandemic, cross-sectional analyses have revealed a 46-percent plummet in new cancer diagnoses nationwide across six common forms of cancer, including lung cancer. In a study published Dec. 17 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, a team of investigators led by University of Cincinnati thoracic surgeon Robert Van Haren, M.D., who is also assistant professor of surgery, concentrated on the impact of not being able to provide low-dose CT (LDCT) screening for at-risk patients during this time.
They found the drop in screenings went beyond the initial phase of the pandemic.
Related Content: “The State of Lung Cancer”: Single-Digit Low-Dose CT Screening and Significant Outcomes Disparities”
“When low-dose radiation CT scans were stopped on March 13, 2020, 818 screening visits were canceled [in our institution],” Van Haren said. “We began gradually re-opening on May 5, and, then, fully opened again on June 1. Total monthly CT scans and new patient monthly scans significantly decreased during the COVID-19 period we analyzed, and new patient scans have remained low despite resuming full operations.”
