The COVID-19 pandemic and colorectal cancer prevention: God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb

Abstract

The benefits of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening programs, in terms of cancer incidence and mortality, are indisputable. The medicalization of a large segment of the healthy and asymptomatic population is now well accepted as an investment to prevent future health harms and costs in the small proportion of individuals that could otherwise develop cancer. Indeed, CRC prevention has instigated a major shift in endoscopy practice. However, it has also generated an overwhelming workload for endoscopy units, which suffer from a limited and rigid capacity.