February 15, 2022 – The Orlando Sentinel recently interviewed doctors who say there is evidence of an increase in colorectal cancer after pandemic delayed screenings. Researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle estimate as of April 2021 there was a 50% decrease in colonoscopies, and that number was as high as 90% earlier in the pandemic.
Likely as a result of delayed diagnoses over the last two years, Orlando Health and AdventHealth doctors say they see more patients showing up with advanced colorectal cancer that is harder to treat, and they worry that missed screenings will increase cancer deaths for years to come, the Sentinel reported.
“Cancer is often curable if it’s caught at an early stage,” said Orlando Health Cancer Institute medical oncologist Dr. Sreeram Maddipatla. “I think this is going to have a domino effect for the next few years because we missed out on this crucial two-year period where we would have diagnosed more cancers.”
Dr. John Monson, executive director for colorectal surgery at AdventHealth Orlando, agrees. He points to research from the University of Bologna in Italy that found if someone has developed cancer since their last screening, delaying a colonoscopy more than four months means cancer has time to progress from treatable to severe or even fatal. The researchers estimate that a year’s delay increases the proportion of advanced colorectal cancer from 26% to 33% for colon cancer patients.