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Delaying cancer treatment for just one month can put patients at a much higher risk of dying, according to research published Wednesday, the latest to sound the alarm about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on other health conditions.
Treatment delays occur in normal times, but the spread of COVID-19 has caused an unprecedented disruption in healthcare services.
In a new study published in the medical journal BMJ, researchers from the UK and Canada found that treatment delays, whether for surgery, radiotherapy, or other treatments such as chemotherapy, for seven types of cancers had a significant impact on mortality. from the patients. .
“There has never been a systematic attempt to look at all the evidence on what delays in different types of treatment mean for outcomes for cancer patients,” said co-author Ajay Aggarwal, clinical oncologist and associate professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
“As we know this is happening to cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical to understand the real impact.”
The study found that even a one-month delay could mean that a patient had a six to 13 percent higher risk of dying. The longer the wait for treatment, the greater the risk.
The authors described the findings, based on dozens of international studies published over the past two decades, as “sobering.”
The research suggests that “for most major cancers and treatments there is no ‘safe’ treatment delay,” Aggarwal told AFP.
The researchers estimated that a 12-week delay in surgery for all breast cancer patients, during COVID-19 blocks and their aftermath, for example, over the course of a year, would lead to an excess of 1,400 deaths in the United Kingdom, 6,100 in the United States, 700 in Canada, and 500 in Australia.
Also read: Blood test detects cancers before standard diagnosis: Study
Balance ‘difficult’
Many hospitals with major coronavirus outbreaks were initially forced to postpone non-emergency procedures to avoid putting patients at risk.
In Britain, researchers said it was considered safe for a number of conditions to take 10-12 weeks, including all colorectal surgery.
“Our study suggests that this is not the case and, in fact, could increase the risk of premature death by approximately 20 percent. A similar length of delay in chemotherapy for bowel cancer could increase the risk of death by an 44 percent, “Aggarwal said.
He called for urgent action to address delays and the use of alternative treatment methods for patients, such as “shorter but equally effective radiation therapies.”
The researchers based their calculations on the analysis of 34 studies, with data on procedures for cancers of the bladder, breast, colon, rectum, lung and cervix, as well as head and neck.
Overall, they found that a four-week delay in surgery increased the risk of death by six to eight percent.
There were even greater negative impacts from delaying other treatments, with a four-week postponement of some systemic treatments for colorectal cancer linked to a 13 percent increased risk of death.
In response to the study, Justin Stebbing, professor of cancer medicine and medical oncology at Imperial College London, said it was important to balance the risks of COVID-19 with those associated with delays.
He added that research he co-authored this month in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggested that hospitalized COVID-19 patients with cancer had a much higher death rate than those without cancer.
“This is a very complex, evolving and difficult situation, as we clearly need to protect vulnerable cancer patients from COVID-19,” he said in comments to the Science Media Center.
Ongoing investigation has suggested that pandemic closures earlier this year saw a drop in emergency room visits for things like heart attacks and strokes, while global health bodies are alarmed by the impact on the fight. against HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.
In a study published in August in the journal JAMA Network Open, researchers found that the number of cancers diagnosed weekly in the United States fell nearly 50 percent during March and April compared to recent averages.
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