Breast and prostate cancer screenings dropped during COVID-19 pandemic, UMMS study finds By Susan E.W. Spencer February 10, 2021
Breast and prostate cancer screenings declined rapidly in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the same period a year earlier, according to a new study by UMass Medical School researchers working with Reliant Medical Group. While rates rebounded in June 2020, breast cancer screening rates, unlike prostate testing, stayed well below prepandemic levels through the study’s end in October 2020.
Mara Meyer Epstein, ScD
“We do know that it’s possible that when people miss a screening test, they could be diagnosed with cancer down the line, but it might be at a more advanced stage than if it had been detected earlier by screening,” said corresponding author Mara Meyer Epstein, ScD, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and the Meyers Primary Care Institute at UMMS