Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all aspects of medical care, including cancer screening and preventative measures. Colorectal cancer screening declined significantly at the onset of the pandemic as the result of an intentional effort to conserve resources, prioritize emergencies and reduce risk of transmission. There has already been an increase in diagnosis at more advanced stages and symptomatic emergencies due to suspended screenings. As endoscopy units find their way back to pre-pandemic practices, a backlog of cases remains. The missed CRC diagnoses amongst the missed screenings carry a risk of increased morbidity and mortality which will only increase as time-to-diagnosis grows. This review discusses the impact of COVID-19 on colonoscopy screening rates, trends in stages/symptoms/circumstances at diagnosis, and economic and social impact of delayed diagnosis. Triaging and use of FITs are proposed solutions to the challenge of catching up with the large number of pandemic-driven missed CRC screenings.
Highlights
The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic is, like the previous coronaviruses and the pandemics of SARS in 2002 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012, a single-strandedRNA virus that originated from a zoonotic host and causes severe lower respiratory tract illness with poor mortality outcomes [1,2]
We performed a PubMed literature search of keywords including “COVID,” “colorectal cancer,” “screening,” “colon cancer,” and “colonoscopy” to find articles that could further elucidate the impact that the pandemic has had on colorectal cancer (CRC) screenings and diagnoses numbers as well as the influence this shift may have on patients, including staging and life years lost
This paper provides a review of these findings
Summary
The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic is, like the previous coronaviruses and the pandemics of SARS in 2002 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012, a single-stranded. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, new systems have been put in place to populations in order to provide a robust review that captured varyingand patient populations. It is important to make up for the backlog of cancer screenings and subsequent gather vast data as variants arise, efficacious vaccines are available and we have gained deficit of diagnoses in 2020 [8,9,10,11]. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and more knowledge about COVID-19, including the risk of infection in different medical second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States [12]. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and Discernibly, a lack of screenings will result in late or missed cancer diagnoses for many second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States [12]. Updated practice guidelines would help universalize a new approach to screening practices
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