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Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on colorectal cancer (CRC) care : Data from 22 German cancer centers (CC) and the Institute of Pathology, Ruhr-University Bochum - the AIO (Working Group for Internal Oncology of the German Cancer Society) CancerCOVID Consortium - AIO-YMO/KRK 520/ass

Authors :
Celine Lugnier
Sarah Foerster
Anna-Lena Kraeft
Inke Sabine Feder
Jens Christmann
Eleni Kourti
Oliver Overheu
Sabine Sommerlatte
Waldemar Uhl
Martin Schoenlein
Vivian Rosery
Christoph Biermann
Lothar Müller
Olaf Schoffer
Jochen Schmitt
Dominik Paul Modest
Volker Heinemann
Jan Schildmann
Anke C. Reinacher-Schick
Andrea Tannapfel
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

3626 Background: CRC still is one of the leading causes of cancer related death though prognosis has improved through guideline based management. The COVID-19 pandemic lead to re-allocation of resources subordinating all sections of care for CRC patients. We present data on changes of CRC care during the pandemic from 22 German AIO CC and our high volume Institute of Pathology (pathology). Methods: Data was collected retrospectively comparing the months (mo) of the first wave (fw) (4-6/2020) and second wave (sw) (11-12/2020) of the pandemic with corresponding periods (cp) in 2019 focusing on the number of precancerous (ICD-O/0+2) and malignant (ICD-O/3+6) colorectal lesions (CRL) diagnosed by our pathology, the number/stage of primary diagnoses (PD) and the number of surgeries (surg) at AIO CC. There, quality criteria of CRC care were also assessed (number of PD discussed within a multidisciplinary tumor board (tb), received social service (soc)/ psychological (psy) counseling or recruited into a clinical trial). Statistical analysis was performed using students t-test for paired data. Results: Numbers of CRL detected upon histology (row 1-3), number of cases, surg and quality criteria from AIO CC (row 4-9) are displayed in the table. We saw a dip in diagnosed CRL and number of surg (p=0.007) only during fw, whereas PD dipped significantly in both waves. A significant reduction in diagnosis of stage III CRC was detected for 2019 vs. 2020 (p=0.001), not for other stages. Quality criteria showed a significant reduction in clinical trial inclusion, a small dip in soc/psy counseling and persistently high tb presentation. Conclusions: We detected a significant decrease of premalignant lesions and primary cancers during the first year of the pandemic which may impact cancer mortality in the future. Certified German CC provided CRC care with significant reduction in clinical trial inclusion only, suggesting high stability of established certified cancer care infrastructure.[Table: see text]

Subjects

Subjects :
Cancer Research
Oncology
Medizin

Details

Language :
English
Database :
OpenAIRE
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....c6b471feb9a628c3771172ea1671b099