No single moment in medicine produces more anxiety for patients than surgery. As doctors, we work tirelessly to establish the invaluable trust needed so that patients feel comfortable undergoing what often sound like scary procedures.
The anxiety levels increase exponentially when patients are confronted with the dual concerns of cancer and Covid-19. It’s true that when the pandemic arrived in New York a few months ago, public health officials made the careful decision to cancel elective surgeries across the region, including some cancer procedures. At a time when our region was preparing for a surge in Covid-19 cases and didn’t have enough testing to determine the spread of the virus, it was important to take steps to preserve our ability to care for those critical cases and limit the number of people walking into hospitals.
A recent analysis of data from hospitals across the country showed that preventive cancer screenings have dropped between 86 and 94 percent due to the pandemic. But now it’s critical that patients feel confident to resume the care they need.
We still have a lot to learn about Covid-19 and how it will impact our country. But one thing we already know is how to safely provide surgery to patients who need it. And nowhere is that need greater than among patients battling cancer — which waits for no crisis or pandemic — because, for the vast majority of people who have the disease, it is a greater threat to their lives than the virus.
At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where I work, we did not make the decision to postpone cancer surgeries lightly. Our surgeons assessed which patients needed surgery right away, who could postpone it without negatively impacting their well-being, and whether other treatments like chemotherapy or radiation might give equivalent results. Some cancer surgeries can be postponed safely for up to a few months, but studies suggest that it’s not safe to wait longer than that, because a cancer that’s curable might progress and become incurable. At MSK we never stopped performing essential surgeries, though we did postpone some cases for which it was safe to do so.
Dr. Jeffrey Drebin is chair of the Department of Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and specializes in treating cancers of the pancreas and liver.