Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 May 17:11:675038.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.675038. eCollection 2021.

Has COVID-19 Affected Cancer Screening Programs? A Systematic Review

Ibrahim Alkatout  1 , Matthias Biebl  2 , Zohre Momenimovahed  3 , Edward Giovannucci  4   5 , Fatemeh Hadavandsiri  6 , Hamid Salehiniya  7 , Leila Allahqoli  8
Affiliations
Review

Has COVID-19 Affected Cancer Screening Programs? A Systematic Review

Ibrahim Alkatout et al. Front Oncol. .

Abstract

Background: Health care services across the world have been enormously affected by the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Services in oncology have been curtailed because medical services have been focused on preventing the spread of the virus and maximizing the number of available hospital beds. The present study was designed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on cancer screening.

Methods: Databases such as Medline, Web of Science Core Collection (Indexes = SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, A & HCI Timespan) and Scopus were searched comprehensively for articles published until January 2021. The keywords used were COVID-19 and cancer screening, Articles dealing with cancer screening in the COVID-19 pandemic were included in the review.

Results: The review comprised 17 publications. The impact of COVID-19 was categorized into four dimensions: a significant decline in cancer screening and pathology samples, the cancer diagnosis rate, an increase in advanced cancers, mortality rate and years of life lost (YLLs).

Conclusion: Cancer screening programs have been clearly interrupted since the onset of the COVID-19 disease. The anticipated outcomes include delayed diagnosis and marked increases in the numbers of avoidable cancer deaths. Urgent policy interventions are needed to handle the backlog of routine diagnostic services and minimize the harmful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer patients.

Keywords: cancer; coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); diagnosis; health care; screening.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study flow diagram.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Estimated colorectal cancer progression due to delayed diagnosis in various intervals, based on Ricciardiello et al. (25).
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) Estimated cumulative number of deaths in the UK due to breast, colorectal, lung, and esophageal cancers up to year 5 after the diagnosis. (B) Estimated cumulative numbers of deaths throughout the world due to breast, colorectal, lung, and esophageal cancer up to 5 years after the diagnosis (Calculated numbers are an estimate). Based on the data published by Maringe and coworkers, we anticipate a minimum 7.9–9.6%, 15.3–16.6%, 4.8–5.3%, and 5.8–6.0% increase in the numbers of deaths due to breast, colorectal, lung, and esophageal cancer, respectively, up to year 5 after the diagnosis (38, 39).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. WHO . Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Situation Report. (2020). Available at: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situatio...
    1. WHO . Who Director-General’s Opening Remarks At the Media Briefing on COVID-19 – 11 January 2021. (2020). Available at: https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-genera....
    1. Tsai H-Y, Chang Y-L, Shen C-T, Chung W-S, Tsai H-J, Chen F-M. Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Breast Cancer Screening in Taiwan. Breast (2020) 54:52–5. 10.1016/j.breast.2020.08.014 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alkatout I, Karimi-Zarchi M, Allahqoli L. Gynecological Cancers and the Global COVID-19 Pandemic. J Turkish German Gynecol Assoc (2020) 21(4):272–8. 10.4274/jtgga.galenos.2020.2020.0119 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gong K, Xu Z, Cai Z, Chen Y, Wang Z. Internet Hospitals Help Prevent and Control the Epidemic of COVID-19 in China: Multicenter User Profiling Study. J Med Internet Res (2020) 22(4):e18908. 10.2196/18908 - DOI - PMC - PubMed