Review of 'The impact of COVID-19 pandemic in colorectal cancer screening, a systematic review.'

Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic brought a major impact on cancer screening services, among those, colorectal cancer (CRC). This study evaluated the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the quantity of colonoscopies performed at different countries and its consequences. Method: Articles from PUB-MED, Scielo and LILACS databases were manually collectedbetween April 25th and June 30th of 2021. Cross-sectional, observational and retrospective studies were selected; 11 articles remained applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results: There was significant reduction of colonoscopies performed during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated in all of the studies. A 90% reduction was shown in 3 studies, the lesser reduction was demonstrated by Challine et al., (2021), which was 20%. Also was found a reduction on CRC diagnosis during that period, 72% and 22% at UK in Rutter et al. (2021) and Morris et al., (2021), respectively. At Italy the reduction was of 11,9% as Buscarini et al., (2021) shows. Lui et al., (2020) demonstrated a 37% reduction at Hong-Kong. Conclusion: The impact of COVID-19 pandemic in CRC screening and diagnostic services was significant, increasing the morbidity and mortality due to late diagnosis. Beyond that it was observed an increase on the diagnosis probability of colonoscopy during that period. More studies are required to fully understand the impact of the screening decreased capacity.