Dr Timothy Murphy Discusses How COVID-19 Has Affected Lung Cancer Screening

Timothy Murphy, MD, FACP, practice president of Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers, spoke with The American Journal of Managed Care^® about the effect of the pandemic on screening for lung cancer.

Transcript

What impact did COVID-19 and the delay in diagnosis have on the patients with lung cancer who are coming into cancer practices now?

COVID-19 created a significant delay in diagnoses, not just in lung cancer but essentially all cancers across the board is what the data is looking like during the 2 quarters in 2020 where essentially everything was shut down. So, the rate of screening for lung cancer essentially went to zero, and what we're finding now that the system is open and back up and running, we're not getting the same amount of people coming in.

There was a real hesitancy during the end of 2020 and really into 2021 of people going back to the centers to get screened. So, we are not back to prepandemic levels of screening, and more importantly, and rather tragically, the cancers we are now diagnosing, specifically lung cancer, do appear to be in a later stage, likely as a result in the delay of that screening.