Breast and colon cancer screenings are back on track following COVID-19-related declines. That's good news because these preventative screenings are life-saving.
Cancers like that of the breast are curable if caught early. But during the pandemic, a lot of people stopped getting screened. Mammograms are typically done on a yearly basis.
"However, when we get out of that pattern, it's difficult to remember, ‘oh yes, I need to get back in for the screening mammogram,’" says Dr. Brittany Murphy, the co-director of a Breast Surgical Oncologist at Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Murphy says more work needs to be done to ensure rural patients get screened, too.
"Breast cancer screenings in rural parts of Arizona are where we would like to really help increase education to the importance of these mammograms. We still have not recovered and we still do not have the capture rate in this population," Murphy said.
Another reason why women should get back on track with their screenings? There has been an increase of breast cancer in women under the age of 40.
"So, I advocate for all women starting at age 25 to get a breast cancer risk assessment so they know their lifetime risk of breast cancer and can be evaluated to start screening early."
Colon cancer screenings are back up
Colon cancer screenings, specifically colonoscopies, have rebounded as well — unfortunately, there also has been an increase in patients between the ages of 20 and 50 developing this cancer.
Dr. Gautamy Chitiki Dhadham is a gastroenterologist at Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center.
She says colonoscopies are the gold standard for diagnosing colon cancer
"And we have almost come back to the same numbers as we were pre-COVID at this point. A couple of reasons why that happened was obviously COVID scared really everybody and getting to a healthcare facility itself was a risk at that point and we were still learning about the virus," she said.
