Month: March 2021

Categories : Cardiovascular DiseaseTags :

Recurrence Risk of Heart Attack is Increased by Long Hours

On By ModernMedia
Photo of neon-lit heart by Leon Collett, via Unsplash.

For heart attack survivors, the risk of recurrent coronary heart disease is increased by working long hours.

Heart attack survivors who working 55+ hours per week were at higher risk of recurrent coronary heart disease (CHD) events (ie, myocardial infarction [MI] or unstable angina) over 6 years compared with people working a more standard 35-40 hours a week (adjusted HR 1.67). This included adjustment for sociodemographics, lifestyle-related risk factors, clinical risk factors, work environment factors, and personality factors.

“These results showed a linear risk increase after 40 h/week and a stronger effect after the first 4 years of follow-up and when long working hours are combined with job strain,” wrote Xavier Trudel, PhD, of CHU de Québec-Laval University Research Centre in Quebec City, and colleagues. 
The researchers suggested secondary interventions in curbing working hours among patients at risk of CHD recurrence.

In an accompanying editorial, Jian Li, MD, PhD, of UCLA, and Johannes Siegrist, PhD, of Heinrich-Heine-University, concurred: A “short standardized assessment of working time and stressful working conditions among economically active cardiac patients would enrich physicians’ awareness of patients’ needs and inform medical decision making.”

“With the transformation of the modern work due to technological advances and economic globalisation, an increase in work load and an extension of irregular, nonstandard forms of employment, including working from home, were reported, aggravating the control and prevention of long working hours,” Drs Li and Siegrist wrote.

They urged cardiac rehabilitation programmes to offer “training skills of coping with stressful demands and of strengthening resilience and relaxation” and involving occupational health services to develop return-to-work plans.

When cardiac disease patients return to work, their workplaces will need to adopt tailored, programs to retain the workers and manage disease, Drs Li and Siegrist added.

The prospective cohort study included 967 MI survivors under age 60, of whom 205 had a recurrent CHD event over follow-up averaging 5.9 years.Men and people in their 40s and 50s were most likely to be working long hours after an MI. Job strain, defined as a combination of high psychological demands and low decision latitude at work, was measured with a questionnaire.

Work hours for each participant were assessed only once, at about 6 weeks after returning to work. “Some patients could have changed exposure during follow-up, leading to potential nondifferential misclassification and to an underestimation of the true effect,” Trudel’s group acknowledged.

The observational study was limited by only one tenth of participants being women, limiting generalisability, and by unknown confounding variables.

“In conclusion, the study by Trudel et al. provides a new piece of research evidence that work-related factors play an important role in CHD prognosis,” Drs Li and Siegrist wrote. “Occupational health services are urgently needed to be incorporated into cardiac rehabilitation programs and secondary prevention of CHD.”

Source: MedPage Today

Journal article information: Trudel X, et al “Long working hours and risk of recurrent coronary events” J Am Coll Cardiol 2021; DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2021.02.012.

Editorial information: Li J, Siegrist J “Occupational risks of recurrent coronary heart disease” J Am Coll Cardiol 2021; DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2021.02.020.

Categories : COVID General InterestTags :

CDC Director Fears ‘Impending Doom’ as COVID Cases Rise Again

On By ModernMedia

Rochelle Walensky, MD, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director, says that she fears “impending doom” as COVID deaths in the US edge upwards as people increasingly ignore health restrictions and start to travel.

Beginning her usual COVID status update,  Dr Walensky spoke as she often did of “concerning trends in the data.”

Dr Walensky spoke about the country surpassing 30 million COVID cases; of a 10% increase in the 7-day average of COVID-19 cases over the past week, to slightly below 60 000 cases; and of an uptick in hospitalisations, from a 7-day average of around 4600 per day to around 4800 per day.

“And deaths, which typically lag behind cases and hospitalizations, have now started to rise,” she said, pointing to a nearly 3% increase to a 7-day average of “approximately 1000 deaths per day.”

“I’m going to pause here,” she said. “I’m going to lose the script and I’m going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom.”  

At the start of her tenure, Walensky said she had pledged to always tell the truth even if it wasn’t something Americans wanted to hear.

“We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are, and so much reason for hope. But right now I’m scared,” she said.

She recalled her time caring for COVID patients, saying: “I know what it’s like as a physician to stand in that patient room, gowned, gloved, masked, shielded and to be the last person to touch someone else’s loved one because their loved one couldn’t be there.

“I know what it’s like when you’re the physician, when you’re the healthcare provider, and you’re worried that you don’t have the resources to care for the patients in front of you.” 

She also recalled “that feeling of nausea, when you read the ‘Crisis Standards of Care’ and you wonder whether there are going to be enough ventilators to go around and who’s going to make that choice.”

She emphasised that she was speaking “not only as your CDC director, but as a wife, as a mother, as a daughter, to ask you to just please hold on a little while longer.”

She sympathised, she said, with those “wanting to be done” with the pandemic.

“We are just almost there, but not quite yet. And so I’m asking you to just hold on a little longer, to get vaccinated when you can. So that all of those people that we all love will still be here when this pandemic ends.”

Dr Walensky warned that the US pandemic trajectory was looking dangerously similar to that of European countries like Germany that were still struggling to contain the virus.

“We are not powerless. We can change this trajectory of the pandemic,” she said.

“But it will take all of us recommitting to following the public health prevention strategies consistently while we work to get the American public vaccinated.”

According to the New York Times’  COVID vaccination tracker, 146 million vaccinations have been administered in the US to date, with 2.76 million doses being given daily. At this rate, 70% of the adult population will have been vaccinated by June 16.

She urged community and religious leaders, officials, and other influencers to help support the vaccination programme.

“For the health of our country, we must work together now to prevent a fourth surge.”

Source: MedPage Today

Categories : ExerciseTags :

Intense Exercise Needed to Prevent Heart Changes in Space

On By ModernMedia

A study of an astronaut and an extreme long distance swimmer has shown that intense exercise is needed to prevent heart changes in space or situations of reduced weight, such as water immersion.

By comparing data from astronaut Scott Kelly’s year in space aboard the International Space Station and comparing it to information from Benoît Lecomte’s  extreme long distance swimming, which simulates weightlessness, researchers found that low-intensity exercise was not enough to counteract the effects of prolonged weightlessness on the heart.

In a sitting or standing position, gravity draws blood into the lower extremities, and removing this effect through water immersion, prolonged bed rest or zero gravity conditions causes the heart to shrink as it no longer has to pump against this effect. Researchers have used the lack of gravity in space to investigate the physiology of ageing and muscle and bone loss, and vice versa.

Researchers examined data from retired astronaut Scott Kelly’s year-long mission aboard the ISS from 2015 to 2016 and elite endurance swimmer Benoît Lecomte’s swim across the Pacific Ocean in 2018.

In this new study, researchers evaluated the effects of long-term weightlessness on the structure of the heart and to help understand whether extensive periods of low-intensity exercise can prevent the effects of weightlessness.

“The heart is remarkably plastic and especially responsive to gravity or its absence. Both the impact of gravity as well as the adaptive response to exercise play a role, and we were surprised that even extremely long periods of low-intensity exercise did not keep the heart muscle from shrinking,” said senior author Benjamin D Levine, MD, and a professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and director of Texas Health Presbyterian’s Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine.

The research team examined medical data from Kelly’s year aboard the ISS and Lecomte’s swim across the Pacific Ocean to investigate the impact of long-term weightlessness on the heart. Water immersion is an excellent model for weightlessness since water offsets gravity’s effects, especially in the prone swimming technique used by long-distance endurance swimmers.

As part of the routine countermeasures to maintain physical fitness in space, Kelly exercised six days a week, one to two hours per day using a stationary bike, a treadmill and resistance activities. Researchers hoped Lecomte’s 159-day 2700km swim from Choshi, Japan, with almost six hours a day of swimming, would keep his heart from shrinking and weakening. Doctors performed various tests to measure the health and effectiveness of both Kelly’s and Lecomte’s hearts before, during and after each man embarked on his respective expeditions.

Both men and Lecomte lost mass from their left ventricles (Kelly 0.74 grams/week; Lecomte 0.72 grams/week). They also suffered an initial shrinkage in the diastolic diameter of their heart’s left ventricle (Kelly’s dropped from 5.3 to 4.6cm; 5 to 4.7cm for Lecomte).

Even the most sustained periods of low-intensity exercise were not enough to counteract the effects of prolonged weightlessness. Left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) and markers of diastolic function did not consistently change in either individual throughout their campaign.

Due to its exceptional nature, more study is required to understand how these results can be applied to the general population. 

Lecomte had cardiac MRIs from before and after his swim and analysis of these is forthcoming. These will be helpful for the researchers to further understand whether long-term effects of weightlessness are reversible. Kelly did not receive cardiac MRIs, and currently, there are no further follow up plans for him.

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Circulation (2021). DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.050418

Categories : Neurodegenerative DiseasesTags :

Green Light for New Device for MS Treatment

On By ModernMedia

The American Food & Drug Administration has approved a new device for treating gait deficits in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.

The Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator (PoNS), generates electrical pulses on the tongue to stimulate trigeminal and facial nerves to treat motor deficits. The FDA said that for it to be available by prescription, must be part of a supervised therapeutic exercise program in MS patients 22 and older. The device was authorised through the FDA’s ‘de novo’ premarket review pathway for new devices which pose do not pose significant risks of adverse effects.

In a statement, Christopher Loftus, MD, acting director of the Office of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said: “MS is one of the most common neurological diseases in young adults. Today’s authorisation offers a valuable new aid in physical therapy and increases the value of additional therapies for those who live with MS on a daily basis.”

Onset of MS symptoms, which can include difficulties with walking and balance, typically occurs between 20 and 40, with greater frequency in women.

The PoNS device electrical stimulates the dorsal surface of the patient’s tongue. A control unit is worn around the neck which sends signals to a mouthpiece which the patient keeps in place with lips and teeth. Later, usage data can be viewed by a therapist to spot “potential areas of missed or shortened sessions,” the FDA noted.

The FDA gave their approval based on two clinical studies. One involved 20 MS patients with gait deficits (half with PoNS; half with a sham device). Th FDA said that the PoNS group showed “statistically significant and clinically significant” improvement in Dynamic Gait Index (DGI) scores at 14 weeks not seen in the sham device group.

The other study, with 14 patients, showed improvements from baseline in sensory organisation task scores (but not in DGI scores) at 14 weeks. There were no serious safety or adverse effects reported.

Among the FDA’s cautions, the FDA stated that the PoNS device should not be used by patients with penetrating brain injuries, neurodegenerative diseases, oral health problems, chronic infectious diseases, unmanaged hypertension or diabetes, pacemakers, or a history of seizures.

Source: MedPage Today

Categories : New Compounds and TreatmentsTags :

Antibodies May Hold The Key to Tooth Regeneration

On By ModernMedia

It may be possible to regenerate missing teeth using monoclonal antibodies, according to a new study by scientists at Kyoto University and the University of Fukui. 

The team reported that an antibody for one gene—uterine sensitisation associated gene-1 or USAG-1—can stimulate tooth growth in mice suffering from tooth agenesis, a congenital condition. The paper was published in Science Advances. Monoclonal antibodies are often used to treat cancers, arthritis, and vaccine development.

Although the normal adult mouth has 32 teeth, about 1% of the population has more or fewer due to congenital conditions; adults with too many teeth are of interest because they could hold genetic clues to tooth regeneration.

Katsu Takahashi, one of the lead authors of the study and a senior lecturer at the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, said that the fundamental molecules responsible for tooth development have already been identified.

“The morphogenesis of individual teeth depends on the interactions of several molecules including BMP, or bone morphogenetic protein, and Wnt signaling,” said Takahashi.

BMP and Wnt are also involved in the development of organs when humans are mere embryos. This means that drugs directly affecting their activity are usually avoided, as side effects could impact the entire body. The team considered the gene USAG-1, as they guessed that it could be safer to target the factors that antagonise BMP and Wnt specifically in tooth development .

“We knew that suppressing USAG-1 benefits tooth growth. What we did not know was whether it would be enough,” added Takahashi.

The scientists therefore investigated the effects of several monoclonal antibodies for USAG-1. Since USAG-1 interacts with both BMP and Wnt, many of the antibodies resulted in poor birth and survival rates of mice, showing that BMP and Wnt are important for whole body growth. However one antibody managed to disrupt the interaction of USAG-1 with BMP only.

Experimentation showed that BMP signalling is necessary for the number of teeth in mice, and a single administration was enough to generate an entire tooth. The same effects were seen in ferrets.

“Ferrets are diphyodont animals with similar dental patterns to humans. Our next plan is to test the antibodies on other animals such as pigs and dogs,” explains Takahashi.

This is the first study to show the benefits of monoclonal antibodies on tooth regeneration, and offers new alternatives to implants.

“Conventional tissue engineering is not suitable for tooth regeneration. Our study shows that cell-free molecular therapy is effective for a wide range of congenital tooth agenesis,” concluded Manabu Sugai of the University of Fukui, another author of the study.

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: A. Murashima-Suginami et al, Anti–USAG-1 therapy for tooth regeneration through enhanced BMP signaling, Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf1798

Categories : Gender Injury & TraumaTags :

Social Plus Biological Factors Increase Knee Injuries Among Female Athletes

On By ModernMedia

Writing in the British Medical Journal, scientists have argued that the study of knee injuries in female athletes is too focused on biological factors and not enough on social factors.

It is said that female athletes experience anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, at a rate three to six times higher than their male counterparts.The ACL is one of the key ligaments that helps to stabilise the knee joint. This can be a career-ending injury, and occurs most often in sports involving sudden changes of direction such as basketball.

The authors of the paper argued that much of the focus still falls on biological and hormonal factors, with little attention paid to how sex-based factors are affected by the social concept of gender and how they could influence each other.

They suggested that gendered experiences are relevant in shaping female sport participation as well as disparities in injury outcomes. They demonstrated that, over a lifetime, gendered expectations of physical abilities (eg ‘throw like a girl’), to inequitable access to funding, training, and facilities for women’s sport (eg disparities in access to weight training).

Lastly, the authors suggested there may also be differences between post-injury rehabilitation for men and women recovering from an ACL injury. These social and environmental factors play a much bigger role in how sports injuries occur than once thought, they said, urging that there should be much more weight given to these issues.

Dr Sheree Bekker from the Department for Health at the University of Bath (UK) explained: “We wanted to unpack the biases and assumptions that we were seeing in research into and practice around sports injuries in girls and women. Specifically, we wanted to challenge the increasingly pervasive idea that this is simply a problem for girls/women because they are inherently prone to injury just because of their female biology. Approaching ACL injury prevention and management from a strictly biological view can propagate sexism in sport with detrimental consequences for girls and women.”

Dr Joanne Parsons from the University of Manitoba (Canada) added: “Over 20 years of research focussed on biological traits has failed to decrease the ACL injury rate in girls and women. To make a difference, we need to approach the problem in a different way. The recent challenges that the NCAA women’s teams faced with access to adequate training equipment is a perfect example of why we have to include society’s influence when talking about injury risk for girls/women.”

Paper co-author Dr Stephanie Coen of the University of Nottingham said: “By extending the focus from individual bodies and biology to the gendered environments contextualizing ACL injury, our approach identifies new opportunities to intervene and achieve better outcomes for girls and women, with implications beyond athletes. As childhood and youth physical activity levels influence those in adulthood, the sequelae of ACL injury can be lifelong and particularly concerning for girls and women who already participate in physical activity at lower rates than boys and men. There is a wider health equity issue at stake.”

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Joanne L Parsons et al, Anterior cruciate ligament injury: towards a gendered environmental approach, British Journal of Sports Medicine (2021). DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2020-103173

Categories : COVID General InterestTags :

Pandemic Steals the Enjoyment of Terminally Ill Patients’ Last Years

On By ModernMedia

Welsh grandmother Maggie Shaftoe has a terminal brain tumour and doctors have told her she has less than two years to live.

Life with a terminal illness during the coronavirus pandemic and being in lockdown has caused difficulties for one couple making final memories.

Macmillan Cancer Support calls it an “acutely challenging time” for people living with a terminal diagnosis.

In 2017, the 63-year-old great-grandmother was diagnosed with an Anaplastic Pleomorphic Xanthoastrocytoma (APXA) brain tumour, which is very rare and most commonly occurs in children and young people with an average age for diagnosis at 12 years old. Her cancer was discovered by chance through a regular epilepsy check up and an MRI scan.

Mrs Shaftoe said that she has not seen her 11 grandchildren and great-granddaughter and she’s “just waiting for things to get back to normal”.

Together for more than 50 years, Mrs Shaftoe and her husband Chris first met as teenagers in a church choir in London. Mr Shaftoe said at this stage they “should be making the most of the time she has left and making memories with our family”.

“I think we’d like to go somewhere like Disneyland, or Lapland to see the northern lights or she’d love to go to the Cheddar Gorge,” said Mr Shaftoe, 65.

“But the pandemic has buried us in a great big hole and I don’t expect the situation to change.

“We’re noticing that Maggie’s memory is fading quite quickly now and she is getting worse day by day, and we understand what is coming,” he said.

In 2017 Mrs Shaftoe had an operation to remove the tumour and the following year had radiotherapy.

But Mr Shaftoe said this has only “delayed the inevitable” and his wife’s life expectancy “hangs on the effectiveness” of two anti-cancer drugs.

Since the operation, she has suffered difficulty with her memory, impaired speech, balance problems and is partially blind.

Doctors have told the couple that typically life expectancy for a patient with APXA would be five years.

Cancer Research UK said that the pandemic has had a “devastating impact on the lives of cancer patients”.

“Dealing with a cancer diagnosis and treatment is extremely difficult at any time, but the pandemic has added the stress of uncertainty, delays and shielding for some cancer patients,” said Martin Ledwick,  head information nurse at the charity.

Mrs Shaftoe remains positive despite the situation, saying it helps to laugh.

“If you can make a joke of something, make a joke of it,” she said, speaking during Brain Tumour Awareness month.

“You go out to make a cup of tea and you end up peeling potatoes, and come back in and wonder why I haven’t got a cup of tea – you have to laugh at silly little things.”

However managing during lockdown has been “very difficult” and mundane tasks could be a “major headache”, according to her husband, who has medical conditions of his own.

Mr Shaftoe says they now have a carer who comes for an hour each morning.

But he said: “We need more care. We have spent most of the pandemic without a carer and it has been absolutely nightmarish trying to get Maggie one.”

Macmillan Cancer Support in Wales said it has heard from many people in isolation, which makes “a challenging situation even more difficult”.

“We know this is an acutely challenging time for people with cancer, the NHS and cancer care, and particularly for people who are living with a terminal diagnosis,” said Richard Pugh, Macmillan’s head of partnerships.

Source: BBC News

Categories : Diseases, Syndromes and ConditionsTags :

Premature Death Risk Doubled for Patients With Superbug on Their Skin

On By ModernMedia

Adults middle-aged or older who carry methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ‘superbug’ on their skin are twice as likely to die within the next decade as people who do not, according to a study by the University of Florida (UF).

“Very few people who carry MRSA know they have it, yet we have found a distinct link between people with undetected MRSA and premature death,” said lead author Arch Mainous, PhD, a professor in the department of health services research, management and policy at UF.

The findings suggest that routine screening for undetected MRSA may be warranted in older people to prevent deaths from infection.

A third of Americans carry Staphylococcus aureus, or staph, on their skin or in nasal passages, and of these about 1% carry MRSA, the notorious antibiotic resistant staph strain.

MRSA carriers may not even be aware that they carry the bacteria unless they develop an infection or are tested for it. A quarter of people who carry MRSA without an active infection, known as colonised MRSA for at least a year, eventually develop a MRSA infection.

“MRSA can be part of normal body flora, but it can lead to infection when immune systems are compromised, especially in people who are hospitalized, have underlying disease, or after antibiotic use,” said Prof Mainous, also vice chair for research in the UF College of Medicine’s department of community health and family medicine.

According to a 2017 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, 119 000 Americans experienced a staph bloodstream infection and nearly 20 000 died. Hospitalised patients with colonised MRSA may be particularly vulnerable to  infection in hospital or after discharge. Among carriers, wounds, surgical incisions and use of medical devices, such as catheters, may also lead to MRSA infection.

In this study, researchers analysed data from the 2001-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a nationally representative study combining survey questions with laboratory testing, which includes nasal swabs for detecting MRSA.

Adjusting for risk factors including gender and ethnicity, the researchers linked data on participants ages 40-85 with data from the National Death Index to track deaths over an 11-year period.

The mortality rate among participants without MRSA was about 18% compared with 36% among those with colonised MRSA. There was no increased mortality risk for those with non-MRSA staph bacteria on their skin.

Although some states and hospital systems require MRSA testing for patients before hospital admission, policies for testing and treatment of colonised MRSA, which may include antibiotics use, vary widely betweens hospitals, Prof Mainous said.

“Without a uniform strategy, we are missing an opportunity to help prevent deaths caused by MRSA,” he said. “Maybe we should know who is carrying MRSA.”

Source: Medical-News.Net

Journal information: Mainous, A. G., et al. (2021) Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Colonization and Mortality Risk Among Community Adults Aged 40-85. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

Categories : Cancer COVIDTags :

Despite COVID, Cancer Screenings in the US Picked Up

On By ModernMedia
Woman Receives Mammogram. An Asian female technician positions an African-American woman at an imaging machine to receive a mammogram. Creator: Rhoda Baer

In an encouraging sign, the RAND corporation reports that despite COVID, cancer screenings in the United States rebounded in the wake of the first wave.

There has been concern since the COVID pandemic was keeping people from going in for routine cancer screening, resulting in more undetected cancers to progress unchecked and an increase in cancer deaths. As some 600 000 Americans were expected to die of cancer in 2020, any impact on screening is a considerable health concern.

In a statement, Ryan McBain, PhD, of the RAND Corp. in Santa Monica, California, said: “These are the first findings to show that, despite real fears about the consequences of drop off in cancer screens, health facilities figured out how to pick this back up after the initial pandemic restrictions. Our study shows that health systems were able to recalibrate resources and protocols in a relatively short interval to deliver these important services.”

In Spain, cancer diagnoses were down 38% in the first half of 2020, according to one study. The pandemic’s impact on cancer screening that required in-person examinations, such as mammography and colonoscopy, were a particular concern, McBain and co-authors noted. Moreover, little was known about the magnitude of the decline in screening rates or longer-term trends in screen.

Using data on Castlight Health beneficiaries from January 15 to July 31, 2020, the researchers calculated weekly screening rates per 10 000 eligible beneficiaries. Before the declaration of national emergency in the US on March 13, screening mammography weekly rate was 87.8 per 10 000, falling to a low of 6.9 per 10 000 in April. Thereafter, screening rates began a steady recovery, to 88.2 per 10 000 at the end of July.

Over the same time period, weekly colonoscopy screenings fell from 15.1 to 0.9 per 10 000, before rebounding to a weekly median of 12.6 per 10 000 by July 31, 2020.

Multivariable regression analyses confirmed the significant declines in screening mammography and colonoscopy. A larger decline in colonoscopy was observed in high-income counties. Otherwise, the analyses showed no significant demographic variations.

Laura Makaroff, DO, of the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, said that the pandemic’s ultimate impact on cancer screening and cancer care is still largely unknown.

“We have seen similar data showing some rebound in cancer screening rates last summer and fall, but even those turnarounds show an approximate 30% decrease in cancer screening compared with pre-pandemic rates,” she said to MedPage Today in an email. “We also don’t yet know the full impact of the late fall and winter surges on disruptions in cancer screening and diagnosis.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic has had numerous consequences secondary to the disease itself, including reduced access to care for other illnesses,” Dr Makaroff added. “While these measures were necessary, delays in cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment due to reduced healthcare access will likely result in a short-term drop in cancer diagnoses followed by increases in late-stage diagnoses and preventable cancer deaths.

“The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer prevention and early detection will not be known until population-based nationwide data become available in the years to come,” she said.

Source: MedPage Today

Journal information: McBain RK, et al “Decline and rebound in routine cancer screening rates during the COVID-19 pandemic” J Intern Med 2021; DOI: 10.1007/s11606-021-06660-5.