A MILLION cancer cases may have been missed worldwide due to Covid lockdowns, a study claims.
Scientists said diagnosis rates dropped by 23 per cent and treatments by 28 per cent in the pandemic’s first year.
The number of screening tests also fell, said the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Overall, the impacts were worst at the start of the pandemic in 2020 but continued throughout the virus restrictions, said the IARC.
Its experts reviewed 246 studies from 46 countries on behalf of the World Health Organisation.
Dr Richa Shah, of the IARC, calculated that, when coupled with other factors such as the fear of contracting Covid and suspension of non-urgent care in hospitals, “about one million cancer cases might have been missed”.
NHS figures show the number of cancer diagnoses fell from 327,174 in 2019 to 288,753 in 2020.
Many were missed due to a drop in medical appointments and people being less willing to seek NHS help, research has confirmed.
The UK was among the worst-hit nations, the NHS waiting list rising from 4.6million to 7.8million.
Many Brits are struggling with long-term physical and mental problems.
Health chiefs have launched catch-up programmes to try to trace missed cases.
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