COVID19 and Breast Cancer

The COVID19 pandemic has adversely affected physical, mental, social, and economic aspects of people’s lives worldwide over the last year. In the early days of the pandemic, major public health priorities changed toward mobilization of resources for the care of COVID19 patients and the protection of health workers and patients from exposure to the disease. This significantly influenced all aspects of cancer control strategies including screening, diagnosis, treatment, and supportive care.The cancer guidelines developed during the pandemic insisted on the management of urgent cases, which would naturally result in a decrease in preventive visits, screening tests, followup of abnormal test results, and symptom followups. It was estimated that breast and cervix cancer screening tests had decreased by up to 94% and that 285000 breast screening tests had been missed in the United States.In the chain of cancer management, delays in each step can change the outcome of the next step. A reduction in the number of screening tests could result in missing the cancer diagnosis or recurrence. Studies from different countries reflect a reduction in the number of diagnosed breast cancer cases, ranging from onethird in the Netherlands to 52% in the US. Therefore, lower survival probability, fewer treatment options, more intensive treatment, and poor prognosis, as consequences of late diagnosis, can be expected.