How the pandemic widened the screening gap among cancer patients in India

The ongoing Covid pandemic has disrupted healthcare systems globally leading to widening the gap between treatment and patient care of nonCovid disease including cancer Cancer is a major contributor to the disease burden worldwide Several studies have projected that the global cancer burden will continue to grow for at least next two decadesThe Covid pandemic has undoubtedly delayed the cancer screenings diagnosis and treatment around the world The cancer cases in India increased at an average annual rate of 112 per cent from 20102019 and deaths in the country also went up at an average rate of 011 per cent in the same period according to the analysis by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation IHME University of Washington School of MedicineThe new cancer patients registration follow up for old patients and surgery had recorded considerable decline in India between March and May 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 as per a Lancet study of May 2021 The ambidirectional cohort study was conducted at 41 cancer centres across India that were members of the National Cancer Grid of India to compare provision of oncology services between March 1 and May 31 2020 with the same time period in 2019A total of 54 per cent reduction was recorded in the new patients registration between this period The number of new patients registered decreased from 112270 to 51760 between March 1 and May 31 2020 as per the study On the same line a total of 46 per cent reduction from 634745 to 340984 patients was registered in the number of patients who had followup visits to the hospitalDr Anshuman Kumar Delhi based cancer specialist told IANS that in the absence of decentralised cancer care centres in India the patients have largely been ignored in the first and second Covid wave Patients coming from rural areas of different states were stopped to visit for followup and even for first time treatment as all transport communication channels was closed All of sudden premier health institutions like AIIMS and others started refusing patient admissions other than Covid which impacted the cancer care in India adverselyHighlighting the Lancet study he said that 54 per cent reduction in the new patients registration among 41 cancer care centers nationwide was due to the illogical decision of shutting doors of premier health institution for non Covid patientsAccording to a study from AIIMS Oncology department total 51 per cent reduction was recorded in new case registration in OPD and around one third reduction was noticed in the cancer surgeries The Lancet study points out that the hospital admissions decreased from 88801 to 56885 36 per cent reduction and outpatient chemotherapy decreased from 173634 to 109107 37 per cent reduction in 41 cancer centresThese reductions were even more marked between April and May 2020 Cancer screening was stopped completely or was functioning at less than 25 per cent of usual capacity at more than 70 per cent of centres during these months the study saidThe ongoing Covid pandemic has also impacted adversely the research and development in the cancer The COVID pandemic has impeded the RampD of cancer treatment in 3 ways Firstly patient enrolment in oncology clinical trials of chemotherapeutic drugs has gone down Second the trials of modes of administering these therapies also got impacted adversely Oncotherapy medicines have to be protected from Bacterial Contamination and the health care worker HCW has to be protected from getting chemically contaminated by these drugs Trials of advanced closed system transfer devices got stalled Thirdly RampD in Oncology also suffered as there was also a conscious effort by many cancer researchers to focus their effort on Covid said Pavan Choudary chairman Medical Technology Association of IndiaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever