The new colorectal cancer screening test is simpler to perform and allows better detection of the disease.

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B. Colin / 20 Minutes

  • The coronavirus epidemic has caused a delay in screening for many cancers.

  • In Hauts-de-France, the Oscar Lambret center counts nearly 23,000 late mammograms.

  • The consequences are cancers treated at more advanced stages and additional deaths in the years to come.

The Oscar Lambret center in Lille, specializing in the fight against cancer, has drawn up a very worrying assessment of the year 2020. According to its director general, Professor Eric Lartigau, the coronavirus epidemic has led to serious delays in treatment and screening for cancers, especially breast cancer.

Even if we have only been talking about coronavirus for almost a year, Professor Lartigau insists that "cancer is still one of the leading causes of death in France".

And to try to reverse this statistic, the best way is early detection.

Except that, for various reasons, the global pandemic has caused the number of control visits to drop dramatically.

"In this disturbed context, some patients postponed by several months a visit that would have detected a dunce", continues the director of the Oscar Lambret center.

The result could be dramatic, estimated at “nearly 6,000 additional deaths in the coming years”.

Decrease in new treatments and more advanced cancers

In Hauts-de-France alone, the center ensures that this delay in diagnosis concerns 23,000 mammograms.

For colonoscopies, the figure climbs to 250,000 for the entire national territory.

These diagnostic delays have a very concrete consequence for Oscar Lambret who recorded a decrease in new patients treated: -7% in gynecology and -8% in senology.

Another very concrete consequence is that patients detected late are treated with more advanced cancers.

It is therefore with insistence that the Oscar Lambret center asks all people needing screening to come and consult as soon as possible.

Especially since the hospital has adapted its operation so that the coronavirus epidemic does not impact the patient's journey.

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  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Health

  • Cancer