Decrease in cancer screening could mean thousands of undiagnosed cancers: HHS

A hospital network in Hamilton says a drop in cancer screening over the past year could mean there arethousands of undiagnosed and untreatedcancers in Ontario.

Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) issued a media release in an effort to encourage more people to get tested.

"There were 32,000 mammograms, 38,000 Pap tests and 29,000 fewer colorectal cancer poop tests completed in the [Hamilton] region in 2020 compared to 2019," HHS said in a statement.

"This equates to possibly hundreds of undetected cancers. For the province, this number is in the thousands."

HHS issued a similar warning in earlyMarch after seeing a drop inmissed and cancelled appointments for colorectal cancer.

The hospital network says people may have avoided making appointments because they were afraid of getting COVID-19.

"Unfortunately, cancer has most likely not decreased this last year,"Dr. Meghan Davis, regional primary care lead for the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant region, said in the media release.

"Even though we are finding and treating less of it right now, I am very concerned that because this pandemic has led to less cancer screening, there are folks out there who have early stage cancers and pre-cancers that we normally would have found, treated and cured or even prevented."

"But it's not too late the sooner the better is statistically a good motto when it comes to finding cancer."

HHS says there are three free cancer screening programs for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers in Ontario:

• Breast screening with a mammogram is usually recommended every two years for individuals aged 50 to 74 through the Ontario Breast Screening Program.
• Cervical screening with a Pap test is usually recommended every three years for individuals aged 25 to 69 through the Ontario Cervical Screening Program.
• Colorectal cancer screening with a do-at-home fecal immunochemical test (FIT) or "poop test"is usually recommended every two years for men and women aged 50 to 74 through theColonCancerCheckProgram.