Study finds 55,000 cancer cases went undiagnosed during COVID

COVID Pandemic Left Roughly 55,000 Cancer Cases Undiagnosed Across Seven Nations, Study Finds

Approximately 55,000 cancer cases went undiagnosed across seven high-income countries during the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study that underscores the lasting toll of healthcare disruptions caused by lockdowns and strained medical systems.bloomberglaw

The research found that an estimated 16% of expected cancer diagnoses were missing between April and December 2020 in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom, compared to pre-pandemic trends. Prostate cancer saw the steepest decline, with diagnoses falling 24% below expected levels, followed by breast cancer and melanoma.x

Screening Disruptions Drove the Shortfall

The findings align with a broader body of research documenting the pandemic’s impact on routine medical services. Lockdowns, redeployment of healthcare workers, and public reluctance to visit clinics all contributed to delayed or missed diagnoses during the first year of the crisis. A separate study from the University of Kansas, published in JAMA Network Open, estimated that nearly 150,000 cancer cases went potentially undiagnosed in the United States alone during the first two years of the pandemic. Research from the National Institutes of Health found that while diagnoses largely returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, there was little evidence of a rebound that would account for the decline in 2020.umn

The pattern was particularly stark for cancers typically detected through routine screening. A 2024 University of Surrey and University of Oxford study estimated that approximately 20,000 prostate cancer diagnoses may have been missed in England alone due to increased waiting times and changes in help-seeking behaviour during the pandemic.ecancer

Calls to Shore Up ‘Fragile’ Cancer Services

The new findings have prompted Cancer Research UK to call for urgent investment in the UK’s cancer services, which the charity has described as “fragile”. The organisation warned in April that UK cancer diagnoses have now reached a record high of more than 403,000 per year — roughly one every 80 seconds — placing mounting strain on an already stretched system.ft

A separate study published in February in JAMA Oncology found that patients diagnosed with cancer during 2020 and 2021 had lower one-year survival rates than those diagnosed between 2015 and 2019, with an estimated 13% more cancer-related deaths within a year of diagnosis than expected.uky

Long-Term Consequences Still Emerging

Researchers have warned that the full consequences of pandemic-era diagnostic gaps may take years to materialise, as patients who were missed during 2020 may now present with more advanced disease. A Lancet Oncology study found increases in the proportion of later-stage diagnoses among cancers detected during the pandemic period in the United States. Short-term cancer survival remained broadly stable across most high-income countries during 2020, though the UK showed drops in one-year survival for several cancer types — a finding researchers attributed partly to the country’s larger sample sizes enabling earlier detection of trends.nih