Breast and colorectal cancers are often detected through routine screening of asymptomatic individuals. Effective cancer screening has led to improvements in survival as a result of increased detection of earlier-stage cancer, while decreasing the incidence of late-stage cancer diagnoses.¹^,2 The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has posed a substantial challenge in cancer care by disrupting cancer screening procedures such as mammograms and colonoscopies.³ We sought to compare the incidence of early- and late-stage breast and colorectal cancer diagnoses during vs before the COVID-19 pandemic among patients at our institution.

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Article Information

Accepted for Publication: December 23, 2021.

Published: February 15, 2022. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.48581

Corresponding Author: Jade Zifei Zhou, MD, PhD, Moores Cancer Center at University of California San Diego Health, 3855 Health Sciences Dr, MC 0829, La Jolla, CA 92093-0829 (jzzhou@health.ucsd.edu).

Author Contributions: Drs Gold and Zhou had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Concept and design: Gold.

Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: All authors.

Drafting of the manuscript: Zhou, Ramsey, Gold.

Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: Zhou, Kane, Akhondzadeh, Banerjee, Shatsky, Gold.

Statistical analysis: Shatsky, Gold.

Administrative, technical, or material support: Kane, Ramsey, Akhondzadeh, Gold.

Supervision: Shatsky, Gold.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Gold reported receiving personal fees from AstraZeneca; personal fees from Takeda, Rakuten, and Regeneron; and grants from Pfizer and Pharmacyclics outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

Additional Contributions: We thank Jing Zhang, MSc (Moores Cancer Center, University of California San Diego Health), for assistance with statistical analysis. There was no financial compensation for this contribution.

References

Nelson HD , Fu R , Cantor A , Pappas M , Daeges M , Humphrey L . Effectiveness of breast cancer screening: systematic review and meta-analysis to update the 2009 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation. Ann Intern Med. 2016;164(4):244-255. doi:10.7326/M15-0969 PubMed Google Scholar Crossref

Shaukat A , Mongin SJ , Geisser MS , et al. Long-term mortality after screening for colorectal cancer. N Engl J Med. 2013;369(12):1106-1114. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1300720 PubMed Google Scholar Crossref

Mitchell EP . Declines in cancer screening during COVID-19 pandemic. J Natl Med Assoc. 2020;112(6):563-564. doi:10.1016/j.jnma.2020.12.004 PubMed Google Scholar Crossref

Lee JH , Mohamed T , Ramsey C , et al. A hospital-wide intervention to improve compliance with TNM cancer staging documentation. J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 2021;1-10. doi:10.6004/jnccn.2020.7799 PubMed Google Scholar

Comparison of Early- and Late-Stage Breast and Colorectal Cancer Diagnoses During vs Before the COVID-19 Pandemic

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