Idle Doodle: ENT Cancers Up

In rounds this morning, my wife found out at the cancer center she works at, that they received a sudden influx of Ear Nose and Throat cancer patients with many of them being in the advanced stages. The dosimetrist is currently overwhelmed with such cases. These are complex cases for radiation oncology due to its proximity to so many vital organs.

Normally, ENT cancer comes in at a trickle, but it appears that doctors have been unwilling to screen for ENT cancer due to the proximity doctors have had to be to patients' mouths and the transmissibility of COVID-19.

I'm guessing this is just the start of the cancer wave that is going to be crashing onto the hospitals over the next year. Since March of this year, her cancer center has seen a precipitous drop in cancer patients, likely due to decreased cancer screening. I don't think the result of this delay of screening has been fully realized yet.

Does this have anything to do with government lockdowns? I don't think it does, directly. As I understand it, doctors' offices were never shut down. People were still free to do cancer screenings. However, the lockdowns, as well as the hyperventilating commentary from both the media and the government, have likely contributed to the fear and panic people have had, resulting in putting off important medical procedures.