UK Cancer diagnoses for Breast Cancer fell alarmingly during the summer. At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic thousands of routine operations, scans and appointments were cancelled. Patients were later scared to visit hospitals for a mammogram screening for fear of catching the virus.
In consequence of this screening and diagnosis pause due to the pandemic, there will be an undiagnosed and untreated cancer time bomb, leading to a future death surge from breast and other cancers.
Although NHS screening has now resumed, many clinics have had to reduce the number of appointments because of social distancing, infection control and a shortage of diagnostic staff.
Early detection is crucial in all forms of cancer and delays in mammogram screening will cause healthy women will die unnecessarily from breast cancer. The NHS offers breast screening to women aged 50 to 71 every three years.
Breast Cancer affects one in eight women in a lifetime and one percent of men. Breast cancer does not discriminate. It does not care if you are thin or heavy, rich or poor. A lot of people refer to breast cancer as the silent killer because you can feel fine and have no symptoms but may still have breast cancer.
The problem was highlighted this week by the charity Breast Cancer Now at the start of ‘Go Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month’.
The charity estimates that 986,000 patients have missed mammogram screening. cancerous growths in the breast will consequently have gone undetected in around 8,600 women.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, C.E.O of Breast Cancer Now, said: ‘Mammograms are a key tool in the early detection of breast cancer, which is critical to stopping women dying from the disease. We cannot afford for the programme to be paused again.’
Further Reading
Breast Cancer Now
The Breast Cancer Research and Care charity
NHS
Symptoms/Causes//Diagnosis/Treatment for Breast Cancer in Women
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
Breast Cancer
