The COVID-19 pandemic has had a “catastrophic impact” on people with cancer over the past two years, as up to 50 percent of cancer services were disrupted last year, WHO Europe Director Hans Kluge said Thursday.
“Tomorrow is World Cancer Day, and I want to take the opportunity to underscore the catastrophic impact the pandemic has had over the past 2 years on people with cancer,” Kluge said.
“The impact of COVID-19 indeed goes far beyond the disease itself. Cancer touches all our lives, either directly or through its effect on family and loved ones. 1 in 4 people in Europe and Central Asia will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. It is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in the WHO European Region, accounting for more than 20 percent of all deaths.
“Looking back over these past 2 years, cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment have suffered in an unprecedented way as health services have struggled to respond to COVID-19,” the WHO Europe Director added.
According to the WHO’s latest Global Pulse Survey, the last three months of 2021 saw disruptions of between 5 to 50 percent in cancer care, such as screening and treatment, in all countries reporting in Europe.
However, that situation has improved since the first three months of last year, Kluge said, when cancer services were disrupted by more than 50 percent in 44 percent of countries reporting, and by between 5 to 50 percent in the remaining countries, although he noted that the “knock-on effect of this disruption will be felt for years.”
During the second half of 2021, in between which time the Omicron variant of COVID-19 was discovered, 44 percent of countries around the world reported an increase in service backlogs for cancer screening, according to the WHO survey.
The data was far worse in the early stages of the pandemic though, when the diagnosis of invasive tumors fell by 44 percent in Belgium and the number of cancers diagnosed in Spain was 34 percent lower than expected.
In Italy, which experienced one of the worst outbreaks of the virus at the very start of the pandemic, colorectal screenings decreased by 46 percent between 2019 and 2020.
“The way in which the pandemic delays cancer care and creates service backlogs is a deadly interplay,” Kluge said. “At this point in time, 24 months since COVID-19’s arrival, the health workforce is overstretched and exhausted—repurposed to address the direct impact of the virus.
“But any respite that widespread immunity provides thanks to vaccination and in the wake of the less severe Omicron [variant], together with the coming spring and summer seasons, must be used immediately to enable health workers to return to other important health care functions in order to bring backlogs for chronic care services down.
“As we go forward, maintenance of essential health services, including services along the continuum of cancer care—from prevention to early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and palliative care—must be a component of emergency planning and response,” Kluge said.
Kluge added 30 to 40 percent of cancers in Europe and central Asia are preventable.
To mark World Cancer Day, the WHO is publishing a new guide on cancer screening as part of its initiative to erase cancer as a life-threatening disease in Europe and Central Asia through evidence-based policies.
