Cancer Patients Suffered a Pandemic Double Whammy
Newser • • health
Key Points:
- A study analyzing national cancer registry data found that one-year survival rates for patients diagnosed with malignant cancer in 2020 and 2021 were lower than expected, with about 17,400 additional deaths compared to trends from 2015-2019.
- The decrease in survival rates was observed for both early- and late-stage cancer diagnoses across all cancer types, with significant impacts noted in colorectal, prostate, and pancreatic cancers.
- Researchers suggest that disruptions to the healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as postponed cancer screenings and overwhelmed medical facilities, likely contributed to the worse survival outcomes rather than deaths directly caused by the virus.
- The study highlights the broader indirect effects of the pandemic on cancer patient outcomes and emphasizes the importance of understanding
