Health

Tony O’Brien: True cost of delayed cancer diagnosis during Covid only now becoming clear

The Covid pandemic may be over, but cancer patients and their families will be counting the cost of Ireland’s long lockdowns for years to come

In the first year of the pandemic alone, one in 10 of the cancers that would have been expected to be found were not diagnosed. Picture: Getty

Irish cancer patients were badly impacted by Covid-19. During the first few months of the pandemic, around 700 patients affected by cancer tested positive for the virus, with 189 succumbing to the illness.

The pandemic may be over, but what is now becoming clear is just how much the diagnosis and treatment of cancer has been affected by Covid and the lockdown measures introduced in response to the virus.

Data from the Department of Health ...