Sunday, May 31, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Cathie Sharon was getting ready to start her new job in retail when the COVID-19 outbreak in Nevada unleashed the statewide shutdown of nonessential businesses. It meant not only losing her source of income, but her health insurance.
A breast cancer survivor, Sharon has been cancer free for three years. But that doesn’t mean her cancer treatment is over — many who survive cancer are still at risk of having it come back again.
“The last meeting I had with my oncologist he said he wanted to keep me in treatment for six more years,” the Henderson resident said. “I’ll need medication for at least the next six years and I meet with my oncologist at least twice a year.”
Cancer patients and survivors across the United States are facing barriers in obtaining the care they need as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect all aspects of life. Around 87% of cancer patients say the pandemic has affected their health care, according to a survey conducted by the American Cancer Action Network. Of those in active treatment, 79% reported delays in their health care.
“The situation is getting worse, not better for cancer patients during this pandemic,” said Lisa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “Health practitioners continue to work to balance safety for an immunocompromised population at increased risk for contracting COVID with timely treatment to prevent the spread of cancer. Unfortunately, this results in delays in treatment for many cancer patients.”
Dr. Ed Kingsley, past president of the Clark County Medical Society and founder of Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, said he saw a slight dip in cancer patients from mid-March to late April but the center was proactive in ensuring active patients got the treatment they needed with no delays. By the first week of May, the center’s volume of patients returned to pre-coronavirus numbers, he said.
Still, there were some procedures that had to be pushed back by at least a few weeks, particularly for breast cancer patients.
“That said, the majority of breast cancers are not rapidly growing cancers and we can safely delay those surgeries in those kinds of patients by a few weeks and that has happened,” he said.
And this is just for the patients who still have their health insurance. The survey also reported that nearly half of the 1,200 cancer patients interviewed say that the pandemic has affected them financially.
“COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on the barriers to affordable health care that cancer patients have long faced,” Lacasse said.
Sharon was able to get on her husband’s insurance, but it’s much more restrictive than what she had previously.
“I called my (the doctor) who was supposed to do my mammogram and they said ‘we don’t take your insurance, you can longer be a patient of ours,’” she said. “My oncologist is in my husband’s program and he could have scheduled the mammogram, but I have to have a referral.”
The referral had to come from a physician in her husband’s plan. Unfortunately for Sharon, the regular doctor she has seen the past two decades is not part of his plan.
She tries to maintain a sense of humor about her predicament, but she says she cannot overstate enough how frustrating it is for her to jump through so many hurdles.
“I had to schedule an appointment with a brand new physician that was part of his program. I did, but couldn’t get an appointment until June 12. This doctor will have to write me a referral for the oncologist and I’ve already been getting this treatment for the last three years … what a pain in the patootie.”
Sharon worries she won’t be able to get her mammogram until July or August at the earliest, which would be months after she originally was scheduled to have the procedure.
Her sense of urgency for keeping on top of her treatment is personal after having to watch her friend battle breast cancer three different occasions.
“She had to have a double radical mastectomy and has gone through chemotherapy through all this COVID crap,” she said. “You can’t put these mammograms off. There’s a reason to catch these things on time.”
As hospitals across Southern Nevada fully reopen, many physicians worry that some patients won’t get the care they need out of fear of contracting coronavirus.
Kingsley is sympathetic to cancer patients who are afraid of getting the virus. He referenced a study published by The Lancet that found that cancer patients who catch the virus have a 28% mortality rate.
“I had a patient who came in to see me, it was a new patient visit, a young lady, and after she completed the screening process and walked in to the foyer to see a room full of patients, she panicked and literally fled out the door,” he said.
Kingsley said all the health care providers in his clinic were taking safety measures to mitigate the spread of infection.
“I personally wear an N95 mask always during the day and we all practice good handwashing,” he said. “I think the risk of a patient coming into our clinic and catching the infection from someone else is very low and their risk of having complications from the cancer is much higher.”
Sharon isn’t afraid of the virus. She stays home, wears a mask and practices social distancing. She won’t let anything stop her from getting the care she needs.
“I’m not afraid to go out and seek treatment. I think that’s something people need to get over,” she said. “You’ve got to take care of your health in that respect. If you get cancer, you can’t put that off. COVID is going to go away someday.”
