Colorectal cancer screening during the COVID-19 pandemic: Impact of paused screening and evaluation of strategies to reduce delays - ARCHIVED

Colorectal cancer screening, along with other health care services, was suspended in Canada in the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic response. This pause was deemed necessary to allow health care facilities to establish appropriate infection-control measures to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks and to reserve health system capacity for COVID-19 patients. The current article projects the impact of a three-month suspension of screening for colorectal cancer using a fecal test for average-risk individuals, and compares strategies to minimize the harm from screening interruptions. The projections come from OncoSim, a cancer microsimulation model co-developed by Statistics Canada and the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer.