Background

There is an opportunity to improve breast and colon cancer screening in bariatric patients by mandating such screening prior to bariatric surgery. The impact of COVID-19 on cancer screening in the preoperative bariatric patient population is unknown. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the rates of breast and colon cancer screening in the preoperative bariatric patient population and to determine if performance of these tests were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

Single institution retrospective chart review of all patients presenting prior to bariatric surgery from 2019-2021. Three variables were examined in preoperative patients: colonoscopy within 10 years of 50th birthday, concurrent screening colonoscopy at the time of preoperative upper endoscopy, the presence of a screening mammogram in women over age 40.

Results

1052 patients were included in the study. 336 patients were over the age of 50 and 273 (81.1%) had a colonoscopy within the recommended screening guidelines and 63 (18.75%) of these patients had a screening colonoscopy at the time of the preoperative upper endoscopy. 489 patients were female over the age of 40, 326 (66.6%) were current on recommended mammography. There were no differences in rates in screening rates before and after the COVID-19 pandemic for colonoscopy (p = .298) and mammography (p = 0.111).

Conclusions

There is an opportunity to improve cancer screening rates in patients undergoing a preoperative evaluation for bariatric surgery. Cancer screening rates in this patient population do not appear to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.