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You’d think that a decrease in cancer diagnoses over the past few months would be good news.
Dig deeper, though, and a more complex truth emerges: It means that preventive medical care has declined since the coronavirus pandemic began.
With stay-at-home orders and concerns about COVID-19 transmission, many people have put off medical screenings. Because cancer and other diseases don’t take vacations, experts urge people not to take time off from routine medical care.
“There has been an estimated 46 percent drop in the number of cancer diagnoses in the U.S. since last spring,” said Thomas Buchholz, M.D., medical director of the Scripps MD Anderson Cancer Center in San Diego. “That’s a direct consequence of postponing screenings. We’re open for safe cancer screenings. We’ve taken care that screenings, colonoscopies and other tests are safe, so that if people are confronted by cancer, they will be able to tackle it early.