Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Cancer Staging: An Analysis of Patients With Breast Cancer From a Community Practice in Brazil.
JCO Glob Oncol
; 8: e2200289, 2022 Nov.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2109211
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
A nationwide lockdown was enforced in Brazil starting in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic when cancer screening activities were reduced. In this study, we evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on breast cancer (BC) diagnosis.METHODS:
We extracted data from the medical records of patients age older than 18 years who were diagnosed with BC and started treatment or follow-up in private oncology institutions in Brazil between 2018 and 2021. The primary objective was to compare the stage distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021) with a historical prepandemic control cohort (2018-2019). Early BC was defined as stage I-II and advanced disease as stage IV.RESULTS:
We collected data for 11,753 patients with an initial diagnosis of BC, with 6,493 patients in the pandemic (2020-2021) and 5,260 patients in the prepandemic period (2018-2019). We observed a lower prevalence of early-stage BC (63.6% v 68.4%) and a higher prevalence of advanced-stage BC (16.9 v 12.7%), after the onset of the pandemic (both P < .01). This pattern was similar for both estrogen receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive tumors significantly decreased in the early stage from 69% to 67% and 68% to 58%, respectively, and a considerable increase in advanced-stage disease from 13% to 15% and 13% to 20%, respectively. For triple-negative BC, there was a significantly higher percentage of patients with advanced-stage disease during the pandemic (17% v 11%). Overall, age 50 years or older and postmenopausal status were associated with a greater risk of advanced stage at diagnosis during the pandemic period.CONCLUSION:
We observed a substantial increase in the number of cases of advanced-stage BC in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Breast Neoplasms
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
South America
/
Brazil
Language:
English
Journal:
JCO Glob Oncol
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Go.22.00289
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