Covid fear delays cancer patients from seeking treatment

While the pandemic has brought with it various physical and financial concerns, the medical fraternity is battling an unforeseen worry. Oncologists, in particular, have more reason to be concerned as patients delay treatment or diagnosis.
“Cancer is progressive in nature, and delays render treatment difficult,” says Margao-based oncosurgeon Jean Louis de Menezes.
World over, when Covid-19 raised its head in March, all the hype around the virus saw people shutting themselves indoors and shunning all social places. This included hospitals.
“In the last eight years I have saved a lot of patients. However, from mid-July things are suddenly different,” says surgical oncologist attached to Manipal hospital, Dr Eugene Rent.
He rues how the fear of Covid has let cancer get the upper hand.
From seeing a cure rate of 90% to 100% in stages 1 and 2 and a cure rate of 50% to 60% in stage 3, he says he is now seeing many come in with the disease in the advanced stage.
“Afraid they will catch the virus if they come to a hospital for treatment, some of my patients who were diagnosed with stage 1 and 2 cancer chose to delay treatment,” says Rent.
The result, he says with the disappointment of a doctor who had a curable case on hand, is that just a few short three-four months later they are coming with breathlessness, jaundice and water collecting in their stomach. “Basically, they are coming with stage 4 cancer. Somebody who had a 90% cure rate now is nearly incurable,” he adds.
Menezes additionally sounds a note of caution for those who also have suspicions of cancer. “In the case of cancer, delay of a day or two is OK. But treatment should be timely. The line of treatment will be decided by the doctor,” he says, adding that during the pandemic he, like many other doctors, saw the sad results of patients deciding to either delay treatment or diagnosis.
Rent chooses to put the death threat posed by both cancer and novel coronavirus in perspective by turning to statistics. “With coronavirus you have a 98.8% chance of survival. The death rate of the virus is 1.2%. With cancer your survival chances change with the progress of the disease. So don’t delay treatment. In cancer, loss of time is loss of life,” Rent says.
Dr Mahadev Swamy, hemato oncologist, says that people need not fear hospitals because every precaution for the protection of patients, medical personnel and safety is taken.
Rent weighs in to explain the greater likelihood of one catching the virus at a grocery store where people are not using masks properly and are touching things. “Do we have to be this scared of going to a hospital where everyone from the security guard to surgeon knows everything that needs to be known about preventing the spread of the disease? ” he says.
He adds that he is not underplaying the coronavirus, just pragmatically pointing that the pandemic is here to stay and there are ways to prevent the disease and continue with life. “This applies to check-ups for heart diseases, strokes, asthma, neurological disease, and, most importantly, for antenatal check-ups,” Rent says.
For those worried about the cost of treatment in times when jobs have been lost and salaries cut, doctors point to solutions like the Deen Dayal Swasthya Seva Yojana card. Nothing, they say, is excuse enough to delay cancer treatment.