INDIANAPOLIS — A national cancer expert is predicting a sharp increase in the number of deaths in the U.S. from breast or colorectal cancer in the next decade.
Norman "Ned" Sharpless, director of the National Cancer Institute, wrote nearly 10,000 more people will die from the diseases because of COVID-19's impact on oncology care. According to TODAY, Sharpless's prediction was written in an editorial published this week in the journal Science.
Sharpless said an overwhelming fear of contracting coronavirus from medical facilities has reduced the number of people who are getting mammographies or colonoscopies, key procedures that can detect cancer in its earliest stages, oftentimes when tumors are still treatable.
"Cancers being missed now will still come to light eventually, but at a later stage," Sharpless wrote, "and with worse prognoses."
Dr. Kimmie Ng, director of the young-onset colorectal cancer center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told TODAY she has noticed an decrease in the number of new cancer diagnoses in recent weeks, which raises concerns that people have undiagnosed cancers.
"We are all preparing to see a surge of new patients," Ng said.
Despite concerns about the virus in medical settings, Ng said screenings and other procedures in place at medical facilities during the pandemic has made for "a really safe time to come back and get treatment."
More than 41,000 people die of breast cancer each year in the U.S. and more than 52,000 die from colorectal cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Ignoring life-threatening non–COVID-19 conditions such as cancer for too long may turn one public health crisis into many others," Sharpless wrote. "Let's avoid that outcome."
