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Friday, Sep. 25, 2020

Is the pandemic’s impact on routine health care predicted to lead to increased cancer deaths in the future?

Jacqueline Agustin, Gigafact
yes

Given the disruption of routine medical care resulting from measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus, researchers expect increased deaths from cancers that would normally have been been detected and treated at an earlier stage. A study found a 46.4% decline in new diagnoses for six common cancers in the spring of 2020, warning that "delay in diagnosis will likely lead to presentation at more advanced stages and poorer clinical outcomes."

Delays in needed cancer-related surgeries and treatments also may increase future mortality. A model from the National Cancer Institute suggests there may be 10,000 excess deaths from breast and colorectal cancer in the next one to two years (assuming a return to normal care routines after six months).

About 600,000 Americans are expected to die from cancer in 2020.

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Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

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