The coronavirus death rate likely extends beyond those directly killed by the lethal virus, a new study reports.
Cancer surgeries and treatments delayed or rescheduled due to COVID-19 could be killing thousands, according to a report published Tuesday in the journal Annals of Oncology.
Scientists at London’s Institute of Cancer Research found that the disruption to health care caused by the global pandemic could cause the death of individuals who do not contract the coronavirus but who are forced to wait for operations including tumor removals, allowing cancer that could’ve been cured to progress.
Researchers analyzed pre-pandemic public health data on the five-year survival rates of cancer patients to estimate the impact current three- to six-month delays are having on those forced to wait for surgeries due to the overloaded health system. If surgery had been delayed for three months in all of the almost 95,000 patient cases they analyzed, they calculated that 4,755 additional deaths would’ve occurred.
“Our study shows the impact that delay to cancer treatment will have on patients, with England, and the UK more widely, potentially set for many thousands of attributable cancer deaths as a result of the pandemic,” says study leader and cancer genomics professor Clare Turnbull in a press release. “The COVID-19 crisis has put enormous pressure on the [UK’s National Health Service] at every stage of the cancer pathway, from diagnosis right across to surgery and other forms of treatment.”
Cancer patients are over twice as likely to die from the coronavirus, moving many to avoid the hospital, preferring to delay treatment than risk contracting the virus. In NYC, over 1,000 cancer surgeries have been delayed as a result of the pandemic and many are postponing routine medical tests that can catch the disease before it has progressed.
While fighting the coronavirus should naturally remain a priority, researchers conclude it should not come at the cost of regular treatment for cancer patients.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has already devastated the lives of many people directly,” says professor Paul Workman, chief executive of the Institute of Cancer Research. “Now, these new findings show the potential for the pandemic to also have a terrible indirect impact on the lives of cancer patients.”