Routine cancer screenings have plummeted during the pandemic

Cancer screenings in the U.S. have plummeted since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a newly published white paper. As the U.S. government and cancer societies urged the public to refrain from going to see their doctors for non-urgent and non-coronavirus-related procedures, including routine mammograms and colonoscopies, the new findings — based on a review of electronic medical record company Epic's data — show that people have been heeding that advice. Compared to the past three years, appointments for cervix, colon, and breast cancer screenings were down by 86%-94% in March this year. The overall benefit of such screenings in saving lives is still a topic of contention among cancer experts, but oncologists nonetheless worry that the drastic dip in these preventive checks could lead to deadly cancers going undetected.