Changes in Stage at Presentation Among Lung and Breast Cancer Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Michael P. Mallouh, David Linshaw, Kate Dinh, James Lindberg, Jennifer LaFemina, Anne Larkin, Giles F. Whalen
UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic altered access to healthcare by decreasing the number of patients able to receive preventative care, cancer screening, as well as limiting access to elective surgeries. We hypothesized that given these changes in access to care, lung and breast cancer patients would likely present at later stages of their disease at a large academic medical center.
Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study. Proportions analyzed for statistical significance using chi-squared analysis.
Setting: 2018-June 2021 UMass Memorial Tumor Registry database.
Patients: Adult breast and lung cancer patients.
Main Outcome Measure: Changes in stage at presentation of breast and lung cancer during COVID-19 pandemic, defined as prior to and during COVID-19.
Results: A total of 2,540 patients were included, meeting the clinical criteria for stage 1, 2,3, or 4 lung or breast cancer. For the lung cancer patients, the mean age was 70 years old, 44% of patients were male, and 56% of patients were female; for the breast cancer patients the mean age was 62 years old, 99.5% of patients were female and 0.5% of patients were male. There were no statistically significant changes in the overall stage of presentation before or during the COVID-19 pandemic for lung and breast cancer patients (p-values listed in table below).
Conclusions: There has been no statistically significant shift in the overall stage of presentation in either lung cancer or breast cancer patients in the UMass Memorial Medical System since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the 2 years prior. Over shorter intervals of time there were trends in stage presentation correlating to surges of COVID-19 cases in the state of Massachusetts. Further analysis is required to understand how changes in screening for both lung and breast cancer correlate with these findings.
Lung and Breast Cancer Stage Presentation Before and During COVID-19 Pandemic
Trends In Stage Presentation of Lung and Breast Cancer Cases In UMass Memorial Health Care System During 1st Year of COVID-19 Pandemic
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