The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Diagnosis and Treatment Characteristics of Operated Lung Cancer Patients

Objective: To analyse the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the diagnostic method, disease stage, treatment modalities, and survival of operated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

Study Design: Descriptive study.

Place and Duration of the Study: Department of Oncology, Gaziantep University Oncology Hospital, Sahinbey, Turkey, from March 2018 to March 2022.

Methodology: Patients who were operated for NSCLC were screened retrospectively. The diagnostic method, demographic and clinical characteristics of patients, COVID-19 infection and survival time were analysed and compared after dividing the patient into prepandemic and pandemic groups according to their chronology of enrollment.

Results: A total of 303 patients were included in the study (prepandemic=163, pandemic=140). The time from the symptom onset to the histological diagnosis was shorter in the pandemic group (p=0.005). T4 tumours were more common in the prepandemic group (p=0.01). Most patients with adenocarcinoma underwent lobectomy, and most patients with pneumonectomy had squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) histology (p=0.001). The indications for chemotherapy and radiotherapy significantly differed between the groups (p=0.005 and p=0.001, respectively). The rate of patients with incidental diagnosis was higher in the pandemic group (p=0.001), often at Stage-1; patients diagnosed with symptoms were often at Stage-3 (p=0.001). Among the incidentally diagnosed group of patients, 34 (72%) had adenocarcinoma; 127 (50%) patients in the group diagnosed with symptoms had SCC subtype (p=0.001).

Conclusion: During the pandemic, proportion of patients diagnosed incidentally increased. These patients were mostly diagnosed with adenocarcinoma subtype and diagnosed at an earlier stage.

Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan , article en libre accès, 2022

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