COVID test helps early detection of lung cancer

Many cancer patients preferred to stay away from hospitals due to fear of catching COVID-19 infection and their treatment was delayed during the pandemic. However, many of them could detect cancerous tumours at an early stage due to COVID-19 testing and CT screening, say doctors.

“A large number of patients who were unaware of suffering from any kind of cancer could get their tumours diagnosed as they came for COVID-19 treatment and we evaluated their chest and lungs for the presence of any kind of additional formation or infection. We found some had lumps or tumours of initial stage and treatment could be started for cancer too,” says senior oncologist Dr Anitha Ramesh.

Oncologists say lung cancer in more than 80 per cent of the cases are detected at an advanced stage and it’s always an advantage to detect lung cancer at an early stage.

“The symptoms appear at a later stage and early detection of any modules indicating cancer need to be investigated to confirm if they are cancerous. There are at least 10 positive cancer cases of lung cancer in every one lakh population. Thus, detecting more number of such cases is useful for better treatment outcomes,” says Dr S Prashanth, oncologist, Adyar Cancer Institute.

However, the biopsy should be done considering the nature of the lump or module detected in the CT scan or screening before operating the patient, adds Dr Prashanth. Doctors say that such incidents show that more cases can be detected early and treated properly if diagnosed as a part of regular screening programmes.