Dr. Trinh on the Recovery of Cancer Screening Tests Following First COVID-19 Pandemic Peak

Quoc-Dien Trinh, MD, associate professor of surgery, Harvard Medical School, and co-director, Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Prostate Cancer Center, discusses findings from a study examining the temporal changes in cancer tests and diagnoses in a large healthcare system in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

When examining the recovery of cancer screening tests following the first peak of the pandemic, it is not surprising that recovery did not occur equally across all disease states, as some tests are more complex than others, according to Trinh. For example, the logistics of a colonoscopy are more complicated than that of a prostate-specific antigen test, Trinh notes. For the latter, a patient can visit an affiliated center to receive a blood test; the former requires visiting the hospital to undergo an exam.

Documenting and quantifying the challenges faced to perform and recover these screening tests will help institutions understand the resources needed to address them, Trinh concludes.