Lack of cancer screening during pandemic results in 3,000+ missed diagnoses in Quebec, says expert

The president of the Association des medecins hematologues du Quebec believes that as many as 3,000 people in the province may have undiagnosed cancers as a result of the purposely limited screening capabilities caused by the ongoing global health crisis.

Mammography has still not reached its pre-pandemic levels, as Quebec's new daily positive test rate are reaching numbers not seen since well into the first wave.

“There are still a lot of patients who have not yet been diagnosed and that we don’t know of,” Dr. Martin A. Champagne told the Montreal Gazette.

Champagne said that thanks to the lack of testing, it is likely that cancer mortality rates will soar in coming years.

“We stopped the mammogram screening program, and it has not restarted (in full) yet,” said Champagne.  “We stopped the FIT (fecal immunochemical test) for colon cancer, which will drive you to have a colonoscopy. So that has not resumed yet, because many patients do not have access to their family doctor."

“Those two screening programs are still basically on hold... That means there are a number of patients who actually do have cancer but are being un-screened. We just don’t know where they are. They exist, but they are not on any list, because they are not in the hands of doctors at this time."

Champagne added that access to medical imaging in hospitals remained restricted.

Surgery backlogs in the province have ballooned from 75,000 at June's end, to 92,000 by September. Meanwhile, 2,860 Quebecers awaited cancer surgeries, comapred to 3,308 at that same time last year.

A health ministry spokesperson told The Gazette that the decrease in those waiting for cancer surgeries was due to fewer diagnoses.

“This observation could be explained by a possible decrease in the number of diagnosed cancers—fewer medical consultations and imaging examinations during the first wave—therefore a favourable situation for the waiting list for oncological surgery,” Marjorie Larourche said in an email statement to the Gazette.

“Currently, we cannot confirm this hypothesis, but we are working to document the situation.”