If it's time for your yearly cancer screening or you have concerning symptoms, Dr. Michael Diaz urges you not to wait.

He’s Assistant Managing Physician at Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute and the co-author of a new national study warning of COVID-19’s impacts on cancer screenings, diagnosis and treatment.

"We’ve got a lot of patients with undiagnosed cancer out there that aren’t getting treated, and their cancer’s just growing,” Dr. Diaz lamented, saying people have not been getting screened.

"We looked at data from last year and compared it to this year since COVID started, and we saw that soon after COVID made its impact in this country starting in April – and it continued that people were at a significantly striking rate not getting their screening tests done for cancer – which is extremely concerning.”

He says numbers for April were especially alarming.

Screenings for breast cancer decreased 85%.

Colon cancer and lung cancer screenings dropped 75 and 74%, respectively.

Prostate cancer screenings are down 56%.

While some clinics did close during the pandemic and other non-emergency care was recommended to be delayed, the research shows some oncology care still lags when compared to last year.

Dr. Diaz says people are afraid to get screened for fear of COVID-19.

We’re concerned that we will have patients presenting with more advanced cancers that are either going to be impossible to cure or more difficult to cure,” Dr. Diaz explained.
“COVID is something you should respect, not something you should fear. You need to also take into account your health.”
Dr. Diaz wants to remind everyone that cancer is far more treatable if it’s caught early.

"COVID will not stop cancer. Cancer stops for nothing,” he said.