There is no evidence of a lasting impact on early cancer survival or mortality in Ireland due to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, a new study has found.
The National Cancer Registry of Ireland (NCRI) said there was no consistent rise in late-stage cancers observed following the pandemic.
Survival rates for all cancers in 2020-2021 remained in line with previous years.
The NCRI said that cancer diagnoses dropped sharply by 27% in early 2020 when the pandemic began, as Covid-19 disrupted GP visits, hospital appointments and screening services.
But it said the system reconfigured quickly during the pandemic and recovered quickly after, and by 2022 the number of diagnosed cases had returned to expected levels.
NCRI Director Professor Deirdre Murray said that the early months of the pandemic were a very uncertain time for patients and healthcare providers.
She said that some may have feared that the pause in screening programmes and having all GP appointments by phone would lead to a sharp rise in late stage diagnoses.
But Prof Murray said there is no evidence of this in the data and that the health system continued to safeguard cancer patients.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Prof Murray said the registry has been examining trends for 30 years and the one year survival for lung cancer is a good indicator of showing how lung cancer services perform, and it showed that "lung cancer services held up" during the pandemic.
During the pandemic private hospitals were commissioned for care and non-covid patients were treated outside of the acute sectors.
She said that GPs had better access to cancer diagnoses and the effort to "wrap around" cancer patients helped.
