US News & World Report: Lung cancer screening and COVID-19

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, many routine cancer screenings were put on hold. Now a new study in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons suggests that lung cancer screenings have yet to rebound.

Robert Van Haren, MD, a University of Cincinnati Cancer Center researcher, assistant professor of surgery at the University of Cincinnati and a UC Health Thoracic Surgeon, led this research at UC.

"We looked back at our cancer screening program. It's a program that uses CT scans to find lung nodules and lung cancers early," he says. "It's an important program because it reduces cancer mortality related to lung cancer, because we find those cancers earlier and then patients do better. When we reopened, we found that new patients were less likely to come for their lung cancer screening. We also found patients were more likely to be a no-show for their appointments.

"Most importantly, we found when we resumed our lung screening operations, patients were more likely to have lung nodules that were suspicious for a cancer. Then, they were sent on to procedures or biopsies to confirm and treat the cancer."

Read the full HealthDay News/U.S. News & World Report story.

Stories were also reported by Local 12 and The Cincinnati Enquirer. 

Read more about the study on UC News.

Featured photo by Colleen Kelley.