How have COVID-19 lockdowns affected endometrial cancer diagnosis? This article finds that during the first 12 weeks of the pandemic, endometrial cancer diagnoses declined 35% and patient calls for abnormal bleeding declined 33% compared with 2019 levels. Because the proportion of calls for abnormal bleeding relative to endometrial cancer diagnoses stayed about the same, the authors conclude that the reduction in diagnoses is driven by reluctance to seek care driven in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The ECANA team is concerned that this may be a warning sign of many late-stage diagnoses to come. Because Black women are already more likely to be diagnosed at later stages (which results in lower rates of survival), we are concerned that this effect of the pandemic will place a greater burden on Black people and make racial inequities in survival worse.